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V ^ ^ * 







OUR CONQUESTS 

IN 

THE PACIFIC 



OUR CONQ_UESTS 

IN 

THE PACIFIC 



BY 

OSCAR KING DAVIS 

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OP THE NEW YORK " SUN " WITH THE ARMY OF 
OCCUPATION, MAY TO DECEMBER, 1898 



ILLUSTRATED 



¥ 



NEW YORK 
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY • ^ C 

PUBLISHERS •* 



38134 

Copyright, 1898, 
By The Sun Printing and Publishing Association 
( 

Copyright, 1899, 
By Frederick A. Stokes Company 



■,- Vi-, 



JUN2/iBo'y " 






CONTENTS. 



CHAP. PAGE 

/. Off for Foreign Conquest , 1 

//. Transport Experiences 5 

///. Honolulu 13 

IV. Hawaiian Hospitality 17 

F. 8urf Riding and the Hula 23 

VI. Troopship Diversions 31 

VII. A Matter of To-morrows 38 

VIIL Tlie Talcing of Guam 44 

IX. Some Surprised Spaniards 52 

X. Guam Surrenders 58 

XI. Our Flag Salutes : 69 

XII. To Jar a Fixed Star 77 

XIII The '' New Bully " at Suma 85 

XIV. Manila Bay at Last 90 

XV. In Camp lefore Manila 93 

XVI. Aguinaldo's Wonderful Band 99 

XVIL Cavite 102 

XVIII. Going to the Front tinder Difficulties 106 

XIX. '' Three Rounds Blanh " 127 

XX. Concerning the Germans 129 

XXI. Reinforcements Arrive ] 34 

XXII Night Alarm in Camp 142 

XXIII. House Building in a Rainy Camp 148 

. XXIV. Inching up on the Dons 155 

XXV. Military Station No. 1 158 

XXVL Our Boys Smell Poiuder \ 161 

XXVII. It Becomes a Business Fight 171 

ill 



IV CONTENTS 

CHAP. PACK 

XXVIII. The Evanescent Enemy 183 

XXIX. Some Filipino Questions 185 

XXX. The '' Night Before the Battle " 188 

XXXI, The Play 'Acting Spaniards. 195 

XXXII The'' Capture ly Assault'' 205 

XXXIIL After Manila Surrendered 225 

XXXIV. About a Civilian Person 231 

XXXV. Manila Opens her Doors Again 235 

XXXVI Two Commanders 239 

XXXVII. Opening Prison Doors 242 

XXXVIII " Taken an Empire " 254 

XXXIX. Puzzling the Filipinos 257 

XL. Sunset over Mindoro 277 

XLI. Iloilo 280 

XLIL The McCulloch's Farewell 289 

XLIIL mt-and-Miss Mails 293 

XLIV. Cash we Found 295 

XL V. Christmas in Manila 306 

XL VI. Homeward Bound 309 

XL VII. Aguinaldo 313 

XL VIIL Dreams of the Filipino Chief 324 

XLIX. A Filipino Naloth .* 334 

L, Foreshadowing the End 340 



( 4lJ 



OUE CONQUESTS IK THE PACIFIC 



CHAPTER I 

OFF FOR FOREIGN CO]!q"QUEST 

U. S. Troopship Australia, May_25, 1898.— Fading 
away in the blue mist far astern the green-clad cliffs of 
the Golden Grate die out of sight in the closing day. 
Ahead, just off the starboard bow, the Farallones rise 
dim and blue in the dying light. Already their wheeling 
flashlight throws its friendly beam out to welcome and 
to warn us. Beyond them the sky line and the broad 
Pacific, on whose long-backed swells the trooper is al- 
ready heaving and rolling in a fashion that makes the 
land-trained passengers take warning of the fate that is 
before them. The Australia is in the lead. Behind lum- 
bers the big City of Peking, with the First California and 
the naval detachment aboard. Still further behind the 
slow-going City of Sydney rolls along. Aboard her are 
three companies of the Oregon regiment, for whom there 
was not room on the Australia, and three companies of 
the Fourteenth Regular Infantry, just down from Alaska, 
where they were part of the command of Colonel Thomas 
M. Anderson, now Brigadier-General of volunteers, and in 
command of this expedition. Army headquarters are on 
the Australia, with General Anderson, but the navy is in 
charge of the expedition, and so the Peking, where Com- 
mander Gibson is in command, is the flagship of the little 
squadron. We are to proceed with the three ships in 
echeIo7i, the Peking leading, the Australia off her port 
quarter, and the Sydney on the Australia's port quarter. 
So now as we pass the Farallones the Australia slows down 
for her comrades to take position. She is the fastest of 

I 



2 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

the three, but the Sydney, the slowest, must be the pace- 
maker. 

San Francisco gave us a warm-hearted, royal good-bye. 
It began early in the morning and continued until the 
superior speed of the outward-bound troopers left the last 
cheering, whistling tug behind at the Golden Gate. The 
Californians swarmed out about the ship to give the boys 
a last greeting. When the troopers pulled out from their 
docks last night the throngs on the piers and in the streets 
cheered and cheered, the bands aboard ship played ^' Hail 
Columbia '' and the '^Star-Spangled Banner,^' and over 
all was the wild uproar and noise that serves the world 
over to indicate enthusiasm and good-will. To-day it was 
different. The cheers were there and the shouts. Bands 
were brought along to help make racket. But under the 
cheers were the tears and under the tears were the cheers. 
Sometimes one got to the surface, sometimes the other, 
sometimes both. Men whose grave faces reflected their 
sober hearts cheered until their throats refused to utter 
sound and then took feeble refage in frantic waving of 
flags. Women whose hearts were with the bluecoats that 
thronged the rails of the troopships choked down the sobs 
that hindered their cheers and laughed and shouted god- 
speeds to their loved ones, while tears that would not be 
held back ran unheeded down their cheeks. The demon- 
stration of the day before yesterday, when the First Cali- 
fornia marched through a mob of howling, struggling, 
cheering friends from their camp at the Presidio to their 
troopship at the Mail dock, was but the preparation. The 
climax came to-day with the real parting. 

As the three troopers lay in the stream making their 
final preparation, and awaiting the order to sail, the 
'' good-bye boats '' flocked about them. There was a new 
boat every five minutes, but the old ones did not go away. 
They were of all descriptions, from a ten-foot skiff with a 
leg-of-mutton sail and a crew of one boy and, a girl, to an 
ocean liner, her decks black with a tumultuous myriad of 
hysterically yelling men and women. 

Tugs were in the great majority, and they were of all 
sizes and conditions. They had the best time, for they 
could drop their fenders and fearlessly come alongside. 
Their passengers could almost shake hands with the boys 



OFF FOR FOREIGN CONQUEST 3 

on the troopers, and at last one happy-thonglited soldier 
hit on the expedient of thrusting his rifle out to the laugh- 
ing, tear-eyed woman who was shouting tender messages 
to him and clasping her hands in make-believe of grasping 
his. She caught the end of the rifle barrel, and so they 
bridged over the gap between tug and ship and called it a 
farewell handclasp. The ferryboats carried multitudes, 
among whom were many who had friends among the blue- 
coats. They sailed up to the ships and drifted by on the 
tide. Each time the bands of the troops did their best, 
and the bands on the ferryboats played their loudest, but 
the cheers on boat and ship drowned everything out except 
an occasional blare. 

The wildest welcome of all the good-bye boats was got by 
the big side-wheel steamer that flew the Eed Cross flag. 
The boys had good reason to remember the Eed Cross 
women. From the instant of their arrival in San Fran- 
cisco, through all their stay at the camp, and even up to 
the moment of their going aboard ship they had been 
looked out for by these women. Sandwiches and good 
things to eat had been brought to them by the wagon load. 
All sorts of little errands and commissions had been un- 
dertaken for them, and the thousand and odd little ways 
in which thoughtful women can be helpful to inexperienced 
soldiers had been used to advantage. So to-day, whenever 
that red cross floated by, the troopships were rocked with 
a wilder, heartier cheer than when any other good-bye boat 
hove alongside. Once, as the boat drifted by the Australia, 
one of the women took her Eed Cross badge from her 
sleeve and threw it toward the trooper. The breeze caught 
it and carried it along, landing it finally in the midst of a 
struggling crowd of soldiers, each doing his best to capture 
the prize. Dozens of other women followed suit, and soon 
Eed Cross badges were thrown all about the Australia. 
Eoses and bunches of flowers came, too, and oranges, and 
even boxes of sandwiches. And one over-enthusiastic man 
rolled up the flag he was waving and threw it, spear 
fashion, at the crowd along the Australians rail. It caught 
one poor fellow just under the left eye, but fortunately 
did no serious injury. He bowed his head on the rail and 
the blood dripped down on the deck. Instantly there was 
a clamour of anxious inquiry from the boat as to his hurt. 



4 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

*' Oh, he's all right ! " shouted one of his comrades. 
^^ He's a soldier. He isn't hurt." 

Aboard the troopers the bands played three tunes, 
''Hail Columbia/' ''The Star-Spangled Banner," and 
'' The G-irl I left behind me." The good-bye bands went 
through all their range, as far as could be told from the 
occasional bars that rose over the tumult of cheers. The 
band of the First Nebraska Volunteers, who hoped to the 
last to be of this expedition, came out on the Eed Cross 
boat, and played " Hail Columbia " with a persistency that 
gave rise to the suspicion that they were singers of one 
song. But they switched finally to " The Star-Spangled 
Banner." And then, as the day was dropping down behind 
the western hills and the ships were facing the open sea, 
down the cheering line went the Eed Cross boat with the 
Nebraska soldier band playing a tune that brought a hard 
lump into the throat of many a boy in blue, as it made him 
realise that he was looking, perhaps for the last time, on 
the home land. The Nebraska boys played as if their 
hearts were in their work, and the song their trumpets 
sang was : 

Brave boys are they 

Gone at their country's call, 
And yet, and yet, we cannot forget 

That many brave boys must fall. 

The flashlight of the Farallones is far astern, wheeling 
us a constantly dimmer good-night and good luck. Ahead 
the City of Peking shows off the starboard bow, black 
against the sky line, her glimmering lights dancing above 
the water as she bows to the shouldering swell. Off the 
port quarter the lights of the Sydney respond in uneven 
waves to our friendly salutation. Far down the western 
sky a wet new moon prepares to slip out of sight, while 
the beautiful evening star with which it started its journey 
for the night climbs further and further into the deep, 
unflecked blue dome. The boys, tired out with the work 
and excitement of the last few days, have found their bunks 
and turned in. Four bells in the first watch. There goes 
the lookout^s hail : 

*' All's well! The starboard light is burning bright." 
From the other lookout comes the answering cry : 



TRANSPORT EXPERIENCES 



cc 



All's well ! The port light is bnrning bright." 
The hail dies away in fine-drawn, falling cadence. The 
ship answers regularly to the long, heavy Pacific swell. 
The first armed expedition the United States have ever 
sent out for the conquest of foreign territory over sea is 
out of sight of land and — it's time to turn in. 



CHAPTER II 

TRAN"SPORT EXPERIENCES 

Thursday, May 26. — Bang ! whang ! smash ! boom ! 
crash ! rattlety slam bang ! What in thunder is the mat- 
ter ? From a dim sub-conscious consciousness that my 
thwartship bunk was doing a skirt dance of its own and 
standing me alternately on my head and my feet, I am 
aroused from the deep sea slumber of dead weariness by 
the most infernal clangour that ever broke a healthy man's 
healthful sleep. Boom ! bang ! smash ! whang ! Dam- 
nation ! what a row ! Then there floats back into the 
consciousness from some long-neglected cell of memory 
the recollection of the dreadful gong that beats on an 
Atlantic liner when the brass-throated/ steel-lunged 
steward shouts '^ All ashore that's going ! ^and leaves you 
in bewildered doubt. Yes, this is a gong, sure enough, a 
dreadful, beastly gong, beating in the middle of the night 
impudently routing peaceful men out of comfortable bunks. 
It reverberates throughout the whole ship. It's a mile 
away, but it sounds as if it were just outside my door. 
And it was as if all the devils in hell were beating it. 
Now it comes forward along the deck. It turns into the 
passage and strikes my companion way. '^ Bang the field 
piece, twang the lyre ! " Great snakes, what a din ! From 
the stateroom at the end of the companionway comes a 
counter sound that cuts the frightful racket with sharp, 
imperious demand : 

'' Hell and blazes, what's the row ? " 

It's only a meek little sheep of a steward masquerading 



6 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

in this wolfs skin of tumult. What, breakfast ? Why, 
man, it's the dead of night ! What do you mean by wak- 
ing me up at such a time on such a pretext ? Get out of 
here ? What, 8 o'clock ? Yes, my blind is drawn, and 
my room is dark. Caesar's ghost, how I must have slept ! 
Back goes the blind — it's broad day. The sun is already 
almost up to the foreyard, and it is only breakfast time. 
Now it becomes plain whence came that sub-conscious 
vision of a skirt dance by the bunk. We are taking the 
long swells on the starboard bow. The Australia is long 
and narrow. Over she goes to port until I look out of my 
window at the bluest water the sun shines on. Then back 
she comes, up and up she goes, until my window opens 
out on a sky that reflects the colour of the sea. 

**■ She's the prettiest roller on the Pacific," says Captain 
Houdlette, and she is justifying his saying. 

And if the eyes did not attest it, that sound from the 
rail out there would. For it's now that the landlubbers 
begin to remember the pit whence they were digged, and 
to wish themselves back again. But the day is fine, and 
the breeze is fresh, and to those of us who have smelled 
salt air before and seen the ocean when its surface was not 
like glass, the prospect is glorious. It's jump into your 
tub of salt water, hustle through your dressing — never 
mind a shave, there's time for that later in the day. Now 
it's a turn or two about the hurricane deck, and then 
breakfast. Troopshipping is not so black as it is painted 
after all. 

But after breakfast — dear me, trouble everywhere. 
^^It's the rolling that affects one," says the chaplain, 
^^not the pitching. Now, I — excuse me," and there goes 
the chaplain. Further along the blue and white beaded 
moccasins of the regimental commissary are waving pa- 
thetically about on the inboard side of the rail. His 
agonised head is somewhere on the other side. But never 
mind, it'll come back by and by. There's plenty of time 
on this voyage. We won't get to Manila for a month. 
But there are those in constantly increasing numbers who 
want the commissary to come back right away. His boys 
have had their first sea breakfast, and they don't like it. 
There was an unpleasant suggestion for squeamish stomachs 
about underdone bacon, and it made all the other things 



TRANSPORT EXPERIENCES 7 

visible through a blue glass. The potatoes were not 
cooked, there was no soft bread, the coffee was too weak, 
too strong, too hot, too cold, and there was no cream for 
it. Where is the soft bread ? We're tired of hard tack. 
In fact, we're tired of everything, even of life, and we 
remember Beecher's saying that the peculiar thing about 
seasickness is that for the first half hour you're afraid 
you'll die and all the rest of the time you're afraid you 
won't. 

It is the painful fact that the Oregon boys are very sea- 
sick. The suffering officer of the guard and his wretched 
sergeants have had a hard time trying to find enough well 
men to mount guard. Perhaps the sick lists have been 
swollen by the knowledge that the plea of seasickness is 
sure relief from guard duty. There has been no indica- 
tion to-day of the condition of affairs on the other ships, 
but one can make a fair guess from the way they roll and 
tumble about. Certainly there hasn't been energy enough 
to do any signalling. 

The racks have been on the tables in the saloon, where 
the officers mess, at every meal, but at the headquarters 
table there have been only four vacancies. There are 
fourteen of us. The G-eneral is a first-rate sailor and so 
are his Quartermaster and the other members of his 
staff. And in spite of the racks it has been a glorious day. 
The breeze held fresh, and there were just enough clouds 
in the sky to make picturesque effects with the sun. 
There were more vacancies at the tables of the Oregon of- 
ficers, it is to be hoped, than there ever will be among them 
from service causes. The Colonel, a sturdy young man 
with gray hair, has stood it manfully, but then he sits next 
to the ship's doctor, who has the head of his table. The 
run was 225 miles. What do you think of that, you folks 
who are used to hearing about the St. Paul's 540 or the 
Lucania's 550 ? 

Feidat, May 27. -She certainly is a beautiful, roller. If 
you begin to think that there is a lot of this about sea- 
sickness, consider this : there is a lot of seasickness aboard 
this old hooker. It is the most conspicuous fact aboard 
the ship to-day. In truth, it is too conspicuous. Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel, Majors, Captains and Lieutenants a plenty 
have joined the chaplain and the commissary. The chap- 



8 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

lain is fall of pluck and is giving a fine example of physi- 
cal courage for his comrades to follow. No sooner does 
he lose a meal than he goes back to hunt for a substitute. 

*' Those little flannel cakes — if I could only get some of 
those little flannel cakes again. How many times have I 
picked over the bill of fare like a dyspeptic trying to find 
something good to eat ! Now I'd take it all. But if I 
could only get some of those flannel cakes — you know — 
those little fellows, Td be satisfied. ■'' 

He is a private of E Company. He sits on a pile of tar- 
paulins b^he starboard rail on the hurricane deck, where 
E Compa:^has established its day headquarters, and like 
the oTd cu" ms collector of Salem, remembers the dinners 
of days gone by. He was never a play soldier, but when 
war came he enlisted. When he was at Harvard he was a 
football man >• and became accustomed to give and take. 
He is one of the star players of his Portland athletic club 
now. He is a ^^ trooper of the forces who has run his own 
six horses." He can run them yet if he comes back from 
Manila in the mood. He has cruised in his own yacht and 
has sailed the seven seas. He is one of '' those little dudes " 
that make up E Company, one of the distinguishing 
marks of whom is that they turn out with the ship's crew 
in the morning and sluice down with the hose when decks 
are scrubbed. When their work is done for the day they 
sit together and with two mandolins and a guitar amuse 
themselves with music and sing the songs they learned in 
days of greater comfort. The boys who started out to 
have fun with the dudes have learned to their sorrow that 
soft hands may be doubled into hard fists, and that hard 
muscles sometime belong to men who take the trouble to 
bathe frequently. The headquarters of E Company is left 
inviolate already when only a single dude mounts guard. 

But this E Company private voices a common complaint. 
He does not make a violent kick or talk about being 
treated like a dog. But he calls attention to the self-evi- 
dent truth that raw bacon and half -boiled potatoes are not 
palatable food, particularly for soldiers half of whom are 
seasick. He calls attention also to another fact that does 
not make for the comfort of the men. It is not to be 
expected that a troopship shall be kept as clean as a man- 
o'-war. But there is no reason for squirting tobacco juice 



TRANSPORT EXPERIENCES 9 

all over the decks. It is as easy to throw raw bacon and 
pork and half-boiled potatoes into the sea as under foot, and 
the ship looks far better for it. These things are indications 
of a condition which it is not necessary to describe more 
fully^ but which cannot be omitted in any truthful account 
of life on this troopship. 

There is another condition, however, which it is not 
pleasant to be compelled to record, but every hour, almost, 
makes it more and more plain. 

^^I spent two hours yesterday over my rifle," said one of 
the privates this afternoon, "and another to-day, and I 
can^t get it fit to take to a hog-killing. It^s worn out. 
The rifling is almost gone and there's no telling where it 
will shoot. I don't know but it's more dangerous to be 
behind it than in front of it." 

Pluck and dash are commonly believed to be the main 
attributes of the American volunteer soldier. Experience 
has justified the belief. It is no great boast, if ordinary 
grounds of judgment hold with these Oregon men, to say 
that they will not be wanting in pluck and dash when the 
call for them comes. But they are going against Mauser 
rifies and they are armed with Springfields. That would 
not be so bad if the Springfields were in good order. 
There are 200 new ones in the regiment. They are of the 
old model, but they are in good condition. For the rest — 
well, if care and work can get them into fighting shape 
they will be as ready as can be when their work is cut out. 
But they are going against Mausers. 

^^ I got a new pair of shoes to-day. I wanted eights, but 
they didn't have any and I had to take tens. I guess I 
can make paper insoles for them if we have to do much 
marching. But they're Government shoes, and now I'm a 
real soldier — or would be if I could get my leggins on over 
them." 

This was a sergeant in Company L. When the regi- 
ment was in camp at the Presidio estimates were made of 
all the articles needed for the complete equipment of the 
men. The regulations provide exactly what clothing each 
man must have, and the estimate is not a guess, but a 
a carefully made up list of all that is required to make 
each man's outfit conform to the regulations. The esti- 
mates were turned in, but the shoes were not provided. 



lO OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

There are men on the ship who are nearly barefooted, but 
where are shoes to come from ? They are not caught 
in the sea with nets. 

*^ Well, Fve got my underclothes/^ This from another 
Company E man. '^They tell me Manila is three 
degrees hotter than hell. What do you suppose my under- 
clothes are made of ? Canton flannel ! They must have 
thought they were outfitting an Alaska expedition.'^ 

Somewhere in the holds of the three ships there are a 
lot of suits of brown duck. These are thin and reasonably 
cool, but there isn't a snn hat or a pith helmet with the 
expedition, and yet one of the greatest dangers of Manila 
is from sunstroke. 

There was a meeting of the Oregon officers in the main 
saloon this afternoon. In the middle of it some one came 
to the door and called for ^^ Captain G-adsby.-" At the end 
of one of the long tables a giant of an Englishman heaved 
up his huge bulk in response to the call. His face was 
reddened by the exposure of camp life. His moustache 
was long, heavy, and red. One looked at him with 
wonder and thought of the '^ Pink Hussars" and the fight 
at Amdheran and waited with breathless interest to hear 
him say " Ha — hm ! " But he said ^^ Eh — what ? " instead, 
and you wondered whether any ^' white hands clung to his 
tightened rein'' or '^^ slipped the spur from his booted 
heel " when he set out to war. He has been in the English 
service, and you notice the effect of it on his men. 

Saturday, May 28. — The chaplain is getting to be him- 
self again. He is losing the olive-green complexion he has 
worn for the last two days, and this afternoon he told a 
story of a wrestling match he had in the postoffice at his 
home town in Oregon — he is not from Portland — and 
laughed heartily at the recollection. The regimental com- 
missary, too, is better. He got his head and his moc- 
casins both inside the rail this morning, and things have 
moved better since. It develops that a good share of the 
trouble of the men was condition. As for the food, as the 
condition of the officers returned to that of normal health 
their inspection of the cooking becam^e more rigid and less 
perfunctory. They began to devise means of increasing 
the facilities of the ship's galley. They divided up the 
work. They got all the variety out of the ration^ that 



TRANSPORT EXPERIENCES II 

could be devised. My friend in Company E still monrns 
for those little flannel cakes, but for the most part com- 
plaint has stopped. Still, however, the boys are careless 
about the ship, and keep her in a condition that would 
make a sailorman faint with astonishment. Maybe inspec- 
tion will stiffen up enough by and by to remedy that, too. 

Things livened up to-day aboard the Peking and the 
Sydney. There were wigwag signals from both of them, 
and the Sydney even felt good enough to send over a sar- 
castic invitation to dinner. It was a good deal more lively 
on the Australia, too. The boys have pre-empted the 
hurricane deck, and they gather there in the daytime and 
sleep there at night. They flock by themselves in curious 
company clannishness. The skylight from the saloon 
opens up in the middle of this playground, and it affords 
amusement for both men and ofi&cers. This evening at 
dinner one of the boys looked through the skylight, and 
then turned and called to his fellows : 

"Hey, look here ! Butter, real butter I" 

SuNDAY,May 29. — This was a glorious day. Fair skies 
and fresh breezes all day and a temperature that even if 
it is the forerunner of desperate days to come, is just right 
for to-day. The shaking-down process is developing 
rapidly and satisfactorily. Equanimity is sufficiently re- 
stored so that the clothing issue is completed as far as sup- 
plies aboard will go. Eations are served on better time, in 
better condition, and in proper quantity. The boys are 
happier and more contented. There is a distinct improve- 
ment even over yesterday. On the starboard main deck 
amidships this afternoon a portable tarpaulin bath-tub big 
enough for a man to swim several strokes in, was rigged 
up. A three-inch stream of seawater was turned into it, 
and the boys followed. Such a time as they had ! They 
couldnH get in fast enough, and they had to get out far 
too soon in order to satisfy the demands of the fellows who 
hadn't had a chance. 

At 3 o'clock Chaplain Gilbert held services on the hur- 
ricane deck. The band came up and played a few hymn 
tunes, and the boys sang with a hearty good- will. The 
chaplain preached about duty, a simple, straightforward 
talk. The soldier's first duty, he said, was to himself, his 
second to the man at his elbow, his third to the friends at 



12 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

home, his fourth to his superior officers, his fifth to his 
country, and his sixth to his God. There were those who 
heard the chaplain who didn^t agree with his ranking of 
the duties exactly, but they did agree that the chaplain 
had taken the measure of his audience, which is an ex- 
ample for chaplains. 

This afternoon the flying fish began to play about the 
ship. Some of the Oregon men had been very sceptical 
about the existence of such things. At first they took the 
fish for birds, but when one flew aboard and smashed his 
head against the deckhouse, he hit it so hard the boys 
gave up, and admitted that there are fish that can and do 

Monday, May 30. — Flags at all the trucks and the en- 
sign staff for Memorial Day. A perfect day. You^'re 
playing golf and tennis and riding road races, and going to 
baseball games to-day, and we're rolling southwest a 
quarter west, and wishing the old Sydney could only hit 
it up a little. Everybody has got his appetite back in full 
now, and a bit to spare. The boys have put in the whole 
day on the hurricane deck, singing, reading, sleeping, 
watching the flying fisH enjoying themselves. At 3 o'clock 
there were Memorial Day services, patriotic tunes by the 
band, war songs — " Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" 
in particular — a talk by Lieutenant Colonel Yoran on 
the duty of the private soldier, Kipling's '' Hymn Be- 
fore Action," and " The Eelation of the Soldier to his 
Officer," by Major Gantenbein. Then more songs, more 
band music, and ^^ Auld Lang Syne." 

Tuesday, May 31. — Down the home stretch to the half- 
way house — or, rather, the third-of-the-way house. Every- 
body is writing letters. The men lie about on the decks, 
every fellow with a pad and a pencil. The officers are 
spread out all over the tables in the saloon, writing away 
as fast as those storied Chinese whose pens flew like 
dragons over the paper. No time to watch flying fish to- 
day, and only the briefest response to the cry of '' Whale ! " 
which turns out to have been caused by a porpoise. The 
less occupied Peking sends a wigwag man out to ask the 
Australia to practise with him. But the Australia is busy 
and he turns to the Sydney. Even the daily lesson to 
wigwaggers by the first mate is abandoned. There will be 



HONOLULU 13 

a fine chance to corner postage stamps when this expedi- 
tion strikes Honoluki. There's just a ripple of reviving 
interest when the big Occidental and Oriental steamer 
Belgic swings down out of her course from Honolulu — 
which she left yesterday for San Francisco — to dip her 
flag and wish us all success. She's flying the Union Jack 
of England over the taflrail and we cheer her good wishes. 



CHAPTER III 

HON^OLULU 

Wednesday, June 1. — The last furlong. Why don't 
we hit it up and run away from our slow-poke compan- 
ions ? Honolulu is just beyond there, and in Honolulu 
there are no one knows what delights. But, wait a bit. 
There's the measles. That confounded farmer from Mc- 
Minnville, Ore., who brought the thing to camp ! We 
wish he had never left McMinnville. We'll be quar- 
antined, sure. Two new cases to-day, and measles is worse 
than smallpox in Hawaii. It kills the natives by flocks. 
What a prospect — three days in quarantine in Honolulu 
harbour with nobody going ashore ! How about those 
white ducks waiting for us in Nuuanu Street ? 

Noon at last and the run is posted. Wonder of wonders, 
305. And just as it goes up Molokai comes in sight, a faint 
blue line in the clouds far off on the port bow. Even 
letter-writing is deserted for a time, while everybody 
crowds to the rail for a glimpse — it's only that — of the land. 
Land it is sure enough, and soon after luncheon the bold 
top of Diamond Head shows almost dead ahead. Now we 
are sure of seeing Honolulu this afternoon — but the 
measles — will they quarantine us ? We pull Diamond 
Head out of the faint mist, sharp and clean and beautiful. 
Beyond it there— see that — a great big, beautiful United 
States flag flying from the top of a tall, straight pole ! Glo- 
rious old flag ! Beautiful land ! Letter- writing is laid aside 
now. We remember that there will be no mail from Hono- 



14 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

lulu for a week after we get there. There'll be time enough 
to write ashore, and we must see the harbour as we go in. 
There's the Peking slowing down. A steam launch goes 
alongside — it's the pilot. Cheer, cheer again, the launch 
is headed our way. A small boat is in tow with four 
gigantic Kanakas at the idle oars. In the stern is the 
pilot, another man with him. That's the doctor, and we'll 
be quarantined sure ! The launch is alongside ; the pilot 
comes aboard. It's not the doctor with him. Where is 
the doctor ? Not coming ! What, he never boards Gov- 
ernment ships ? No quarantine, boys ! Shore to-night ! 
Hurrah ! Cheer and cheer. The man in the launch 
turns and cheers. 

^* Have you got a pie in your boat ? " asks a soldier. 
''No, but we've got a spread for you all ashore." 
Cheer again and more cheers. Now we're in the chan- 
nel. Honolulu lies just ahead there. See the flags ! A 
perfect forest of poles, and the Stars and Stripes on every 
one ! No, there are some Hawaiian flags there on the 
Government buildings — this is a foreign land, you know, if 
Americans do own and live in and rule it. 

The little boats put off from the shore in swarms, black 
with people, or black and white, for half of them are in 
duck. There's the Charleston over there, her fighting 
tops full of jackies already. The Bennington lies just be- 
yond, all her men on deck or swarming through the rigging. 
Here comes a little steamer. There's a band aboard play- 
ing '' The Star-Spangled Banner." This is the Committee 
of Eeception. See the white badges ! How everybody 
cheers ! The crowded wharves rock with the shouts, and 
we send back cheer for cheer. The third mate stands by 
the whistle cord all the time, and the whistle shrieks in 
constant response to the salutes. There goes the Ben- 
nington's siren. The Charleston joins in, the jackies 
cheer, the soldiers cheer, everybody cheers. How happy 
we are ! A small boat shoots across our bow, pulled by 
two strapping Kanakas. There's a lady in the stern. A 
soldier spies her. Instantly off comes his hat. 
''There's a woman," he shouts. '*^ Hurrah." 
What a cheer ! We have done some yelling before, but 
not such as this. The Captain has to shout his orders in 
the ears of his men. The pilot himself takes the wheel. 



HONOLULU 15 

We fairly crawl in. It is almost dark. Over on the point 
by the quarantine station a big bonfire flares up. There 
go some cannon. Rockets shoot up, and all the time a 
steady roar of cheers. There goes the hawser. It's fast 
on the pier and the steam winch clacks. Warp her in. 
Our friends are on the pier by the thousand, and we can't 
wait to see them. 

'* Aloha ! Aloha ! " they shout. 

Now we're close in. Bananas come aboard in a shower, 
thrown from the pier, and wreaths of flowers, cigars, 
cigarettes, oranges. Was there ever anything like it ! 
The Peking is docked and we are, but the Sydney must lie 
in the stream until there is room. The whistles keep up 
and the cheers, and now the bands add to the din. A 
couple of young men in uniform jump aboard the Australia. 
They are officers of the National Guard of Hawaii. 
Straight to the General they go. 

'' Welcome to Honolulu, General Anderson. We shall be 
glad to see you on shore, by twos, by threes, by hundreds, 
or by thousands, without arms or with them, as you like." 

Will they never stop cheering ? There are brought 
aboard beautiful wreaths all strung together, red and 
white and blue. Somebody brings a bunch of bananas. 
Over goes a rope. Hitch it on quick. Up she goes, but 
it never reaches the hurricane deck. The boys on the 
main deck grab it and the bananas disappear. Now a 
message from Colonel Smith of the first California on the 
Peking. How about shore leave ? Captain Glass of the 
Charleston comes to call. We send for the Health Of- 
ficer because we take no risks with the measles. He looks 
the sick men over and says they must be kept apart from 
the rest, but the well may go ashore. Cheer again ! To- 
night for the officers, to-morrow for the men. The gang- 
plank is lowered. Down it we go. Honolulu at last. 
Now, cheer in earnest ! 

What people these are ! They greet us as if we were 
long-lost brothers. Everybody is everybody else's friend. 
*' Come up to the club. We're waiting for you." Hustle 
around to Nuuanu Street and order your duck suits. The 
Chinese tailors will work all night to get them ready for 
you to-morrow, and then come and see Honolulu. Over 
the mountains out there, just back of the city, a white 



l6 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

cloud hangs all shining silver in the bright moon. The 
tall cocoannt palms stand straight up in the front yards 
along the streets ; date palms are mingled with them. 
Banyan trees make dark blotches with their thick shade. 
It is so light you can see the purple of the Bourgain- 
villiers. Here and there are trees full of bright yellow 
flowers, dark green foliage is spotted in places with light 
green, and occasionally an electric light gleams through 
the abundant leaves like a huge firefly. The air is soft 
and warm and still, and as we reach the hotel we hear the 
volleying cheers still coming up from the piers. 

Honolulu, June 3. — When Honolulu devotes itself to 
the business of entertaining 2,600 soldiers and their officers 
there's something going on. These people have set them- 
selves the tremendous task of showing every soldier in 
General Merritt's Philippine army what Hawaiian hospi- 
tality is. The whole city has had a holiday for three 
days, taking care of the First Brigade. There are nine other 
brigades as big as this one to come, but Honolulu con- 
templates the undertaking and laughs. Let them come 
all together if they will, Honolulu is ready. From the 
time the men of this brigade hit the beach, as sailormen 
say, there hasn't been an unoccupied moment, and the 
possibilities have not begun to be exhausted. The recep- 
tion to the officers at the club the first night broke up 
when daylight was sliding down the western slope of the 
mountains that crown the eastern edge of the city and 
stirring the dwellers at the mountain's foot to early work. 
There was hardly time to see where one's bed was and to 
admire the beautiful canopy of mosquito netting over it 
before it was the hour for doing something. Breakfast, 
then a spin through the town, and go to the ^' Charleston." 

Queen Dowager Kapiolani is giving a flag to the ship. 
When Kalakua died in San Francisco several years ago 
the Charleston brought his body home. Now his widow, 
through her nephews Prince David and Prince Cupid, 
presents a beautiful flag to the cruiser. The United States 
Minister, General Anderson, the Consul-General, the Vice- 
Consul and the officers of the cruiser, the gunboat Ben- 
nington and of the soldiers on the troop ships heard Prince 
David read his address. Captain Glass responded, accept- 
ing the flag, and then the ship's company were called to 



HAWAIIAN HOSPITALITY 1 7 

quarters, the old ensign was hauled down and the new one 
run up. Then there was luncheon on the Charleston. 

In the afternoon there was a reception by President 
Dole to General Anderson and the officers of the troops. 
Then there were dinners and all sorts of entertainments 
for the officers. The men had the freedom of the city. 
They simply couldn't spend their money. Street cars 
were free and bicycles and horses were to be had for the 
simple signifying of the desire. The beach at Waikiki 
swarmed with soldiers. All the bathing places were 
thrown open to the boys, and a thousand or more of them 
went into the surf. There were concerts by the Govern- 
ment and the Hawaiian bands in the parks. The men of 
the Hawaiian National Guard were the special escorts of 
the soldiers, but the citizens of Honolulu generally took 
the boys in tow whenever they appeared and piloted them 
about. 

To-day it was the same thing over again, with one very 
large change in the programme. In the morning there 
was a public and formal address of welcome to General An- 
derson. It was delivered by Chief Justice Judd on the 
steps of the Government building. Justice Judd closed 
by saying, in the language of the natives, ^' Wele ke hao,'' 
which is an expression of encouragement, which had ori- 
ginally the idea of strike while the iron is hot, but has 
developed into slang use as a substitute for *' there'll be a 
hot time in the old town/' The Chief Justice was inter- 
ested in having the General strike the Spanish in Manila 
swiftly, surely and successfully. 



CHAPTER IV 

HAWAIIAN HOSPITALITY 

U. S. Transport Australia, June 4. — Back to blue 
water again ! Hospitable Honolulu almost shrouded in the 
illusory mist that ever envelops her bluif mountains. The 
strains of '' Auld Lang Syne," played by the Hawaiian 
band, mingling with those of " The Star-Spangled Ban- 

2 



l8 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

ner/' done by the Government band on the steamship 
piers, dying away in the rapidly increasing distance. Two 
glorious days only a memory ! Now lined along the rail 
we face toward Diamond Head, that stands like a rugged 
sentry over Waikiki, and give three throat-splitting cheers 
and a '^ Wele ke hao !" for the people and the place that 
have written these two days in the history of the First 
Brigade of the Philippine army. 

Captain Houdlette of the Australia, who has been run- 
ning into Honolulu for nineteen years, had told us on the way 
down that we would get a great reception in the Hawaiian 
capital. Vice-Consul Boyd, who was a passenger on the 
ship, had emphasised Captain Houdlette's prophecy. But 
no one dreamed that it would be anything near what it 
was. The whole city gave the reception, and the natives 
took as cheerful a part in it as the whites. On both sides 
it was a wonderful performance. From the moment of 
landing until the last ship rounded out of the channel 
and turned her nose toward her western goal there was 
not the slightest hitch. In the matter of executive ability 
the Hawaiians gave a demonstration of the force that has 
enabled the existing Government to establish and main- 
tain itself. It is no small task to prepare for and take 
care of an army numbering nearly 3,000 men for two days 
and have no detail overlooked. At the great banquet in 
the Government grounds yesterday 2,500 men sat down. 
Tables were filled, cleared, filled again and everything 
went as smoothly as if it had been drilled again and again. 
Yet there had been no drill. Such a thing was impossible. 

That was a noble picture. Under the heavy shade of 
the beautiful palms and banyans the long tables were set 
up. The white linen, glistening glass, and gleaming silver 
sharply contrasted with the greens and yellows of the turf 
and the trees. In marched the boys in their dull army 
blue and ranged themselves about the tables. Immediately 
they were crowned with flowers. Great stores of leis had 
been prepared by the ladies who had charge of the feast. 
Many of the boys had already received leis from friends 
on the way to the banquet ground, but now the decoration 
was systematic and complete, for every man there was a 
wreath, and all the varied hues of nature's gorgeous tropi- 
cal paint box were in them. 



HAWAIIAN HOSPITALITY I9 

But the banquet was only a part. The privates of the 
National Guard of Hawaii had been detailed especially as 
guides of the visiting soldiers. They were assisted by every 
able-bodied man and boy in Honolulu who could get away 
from his work, and that included nearly everybody in the 
city. Such guides never were seen before. They knew 
every nook and cranny of interest in the place, and they 
saw to it that the soldiers visited them. Every man was 
occupied every minute he was ashore, and most of them 
got ashore, most of the time. And to their everlasting 
credit it is recorded that not once did they overstep the 
bounds so far as their hosts were concerned. With the 
city absolutely belonging to them, their money of no 
possible use, there was no drunkenness, no boisterousness, 
no rough behaviour. Some of them overstayed their shore 
leave ; the wonder is that there were so few. Some of 
them drank, but no one made any trouble in the city or 
misbehaved himself seriously. It was astonishing to see 
so many soldiers let out of restraint, and just off ship, 
behave so well. 

For the officers of the National Guard of Hawaii, the 
officers of this brigade have only unbounded admiration. 
Outnumbered as they were — ten to one — they stood to 
their task manfully for three nights and two days, and 
not a man fell by the wayside. In all the clubs, and 
especially in the Officers' Club, there were such a cracking 
of bottles and popping of corks as suggested a fire in the 
sun-dried reeds of a Kansas slough. Drinks came up as 
if served by the ammunition hoist for a quick-fire gun, 
but if, when it all was over, there were any blind faces 
that cried and couldn't wipe their '' eyes," they were not 
in Honolulu. 

Honolulu says the reception to the First Brigade is only 
the starter ; that what she will do for the other brigades as 
they stop over on their way to the Philippines will be on a 
greater scale. But Honolulu views the situation with 
over-sanguine eyes. When the ships pulled out of their 
berths this morning you couldn't buy a potato in all the 
Hawaiian capital. The commissary of the expedition had 
bought all the supplies the city had, and still did not get 
all he wanted. The city had been devastated, in liquid 
supplies as well, as if the Ancient and Honorable Artillery 



20 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

of Boston had stayed there a week. If the next brigade 
gets along before a supply fleet reaches Honolulu it will 
get a glad hand and a warm reception, but it will go dry 
and hungry. 

To the very last the city kept up its pace. Late yester- 
day afternoon Captain Glass of the Charleston sent word to 
General Anderson that he would like to sail early this morn- 
ing. General Anderson at once issued orders to be in 
readiness to sail at 7 o'clock. It got about the city that 
we would start even earlier, possibly at 6. There was little 
sleep in Honolulu. All night carriages rattled about the 
streets. All night there was singing and cheering at the 
clubs. Prince Cupid and Prince David gave a great hula 
dance and luau, and most of the officers, including the 
General and his staff, saw it. There had been dinner 
parties before it which broke up when the diners went to 
the dance. After the hula there were supper parties at 
which they gathered again. The early birds that got up 
at sunrise to sing the daylight over the mountains with 
the sun, saw the first of the throngs that later crowded 
the piers, setting out toward the berths of the steamers. 
In constantly increasing numbers the carriages turned 
toward to piers. By 6 : 30 the whole city, afoot and on 
wheels, was headed for the transports, or crowded about 
or on them. A fresh breeze blew down from the moun- 
tains and snapped the thousands of star-spangled banners 
and kept them straining at their staffs or tugging at their 
halyards. Over the dull roofs and the green and yellow 
foliage and the gorgeous flowering trees the beautiful red, 
white and blue flag greeted the morning sun, out-number- 
ing a thousand to one the broad bars and cross of the 
Hawaiian republic. 

There had been leis before, in number that seemed 
without limit, but now there were myriads more. The 
carriages that swarmed about the docks brought them in 
heaps. The pedestrians carried them in armfuls. Every 
officer who was seen was stopped and covered with them. 
Every soldier and every man connected in any way with 
the expedition was loaded down with them. They hung 
about the necks of the men in dozens. The General came 
aboard the Australia with half a dozen bright wreaths 
about his neck, and one great circlet of bay leaves over 



HAWAIIAN HOSPITALITY 21 

them all. Colonel Summers's white suit was picked out in 
gorgeous colours with wreath after wreath of bright flowers. 
Captain Houdlette, who is a great favourite in Honolulu, 
loaded the table in his cabin with the leis he took off to 
make room for the new ones his friends showered on him. 
It was the same on the other ships. They were bowers of 
beauty. 

Along the waterfront where the troopships lay, the piers 
were crowded as they were when the expedition arrived 
on Wednesday evening. Both the Government and the 
Hawaiian bands were doing their best, and that is the best 
that can be done. Finally, at 7 o'clock the City of Peking 
moved out into the main channel. Her band was play- 
ing, and both bands ashore were at it, too, but over the 
roar of the vast crowd rose the shrieks of the siren whistles 
of the Charleston and the Bennington. Then came the 
sharp staccato cheers of the California boys on the Peking. 
The roar ashore kept up and deepened a little if possible 
as the cruiser Charleston, which is to convoy us to Manila, 
slipped her moorings and prepared to follow the Peking. 
With her whistle going and her ensign dipping in ac- 
knowledgment of the salutes of the shipping she passed, 
the lead-coloured cruiser moved out after the first ship of 
her convoy. 

The crowds of friends ashore and aboard the Australia 
keep increasing. Chinese tailors who have worked all night 
on duck suits or light clothing for the officers hurry down 
to deliver their goods. A few last belated supplies come 
aboard. The cabin boy gets out his big gong to warn 
ashore all not going with the expedition. A messenger 
rushes down with a bill for supplies for the men. The 
cheers that died away after the Charleston pulled out 
start up again with sudden energy. The Sydney is mov- 
ing. The cheers deepen into a hoarse blur of sound, to 
which whistles and bands and an occasional gun from a 
merchantman in the harbour add. It is time to take in 
the gang-plank. But the sentries have not been recalled. 
Some of the officers, too, are standing with frienc^s on the 
pier. A man with a basket stands at the gangway collect- 
ing letters, which he will mail for the boys. There is to 
be a special issue of postage stamps for this purpose. 
There are the buglers. They troop down to the foot 



52 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

of the gang-plank and all together sound the '' as- 
sembly." How that call thrills ! It rises above the din 
of cheers and blare of bands and shrieks of whistles, 
and sounds clean to the end of the pier. The sentry posted 
there hears it. He has been waiting for it for a long time. 
He grasps his gun in one hand and starts down the pier 
on a run. The others he passes fall in and all reach the 
ship together. They scramble over the rail, not waiting 
for the gang-plank up which the last officers are hurrying. 
Hawsers are cast off, the engines move, and the old throb 
of the screw is felt again. We're off — twenty days to 
Manila. 

If the friends ashore cheered before, what did they do 
now ? The cries of the Kanaka boys swimming alongside 
and diving for coins thrown into the water, even the sound 
of the playing of our own band drawn up on the spar deck, 
are drowned by the tumult of cheers from wharves and 
piers. But there conies a lull, and over the roar of fare- 
well sounds rises '' Auld Lang Syne." The two Hawaiian 
bands are playing together. On the Australia the band 
stops playing and the noise ceases. Ashore the people 
grow quiet. The bands swing quickly into *^ The Star- 
Spangled Banner." Instantly comes the answer from the 
ship, a burst of frantic cheering that dies away, repeats, 
dies and repeats again. Then with hats off to the colours, 
we pass along the star-spangled waterfront, swing into 
the main channel, bow to the first long swell from the 
Pacific, swing out of the channel as the last sound of music 
and cheers dies out ashore — and there's Waikiki and Dia- 
mond Head abreast. One cheer more for the friends 
ashore, and then we face the west and the work before 
us. 

Two glorious days in Honolulu, the most hospitable, as 
it is one of the fairest, of earth's cities. Over the business 
houses and over the dwellings floated the ensign of the 
United States ; up the streets we marched under the Stars 
and Stripes ; we dealt in American shops with Americans 
for American goods, and we paid in American money. We 
met Americans and were entertained by them ; they were 
of the same blood, but over their Government buildings 
floated a strange flag. We were in a foreign land. 



SURF RIDING AND THE HULA 23 



CHAPTER V 

SURF RIDING AND THE HULA 

June 4. — Of all that Honolulu showed the soldiers two 
things stand out particularly, surf riding and the hula 
dance. Surf riding is a sport for kings : as for the dance 
— well, when you have seen it you will know whether you 
want to see it again or not. Surf riding is one of the great 
sports of all the South Sea islands. The natives are ex- 
perts both with boards and in canoes. White men be- 
come expert with canoes, but rarely with boards. The 
canoes are dug out of big logs. They are very deep and 
narrow and seats are stepped near the gunwale so that 
they would tip over at a glance if it were not for the 
enormous out- riggers they carry. Across the gunwales 
are lashed two short sticks, one fore and one aft, which 
extend about eight feet out on the port side and curve 
down to the water, where they are fastened to a four-inch 
log of an extremely buoyant native wood. Getting 
swamped is mighty dangerous business, for the surf booms 
in so rapidly and heavily that it is an impossibility to bail 
out the canoe and it must be taken to the beach, a task of 
great proportions in a heavy sea and one that demands 
that the men with the canoe shall be good swimmers. 
The canoes almost never upset, but unless a comber is 
handled well it is likely to break over the canoe and fill it 
with water, and then there is trouble. 

The canoe is manned usually by two big husky Kanakas, 
who can fairly smell a big breaker long before it lifts its 
head above the sea. Some of the white men who were 
born in Honolulu are nearly as expert as the Kanakas. I 
went out with *' Billy'' Dimond, who has spent nearly his 
whole life in Honolulu, and as Tao-hai, one of his Kana- 
kas, says, is a '*ver good man." We paddled along the 
beach to a place where the surf was running high — about 
as it booms in along the Jersey coast under a fresh breeze. 
Then out to sea we went until we were beyond the line of 



24 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

the breakers. There we lay, watching the sea, which was 
so quiet that I could hardly distinguish the long, regular 
heave of the Pacific swell. Suddenly Mr. Dimond began 
to shout to his two men in Kanaka. Instantly a feeling 
of wild confusion and excitement pervaded the canoe. 
The Kanakas and Mr. Dimond drove home the broad pad- 
dles and shouted in the Hawaiian language. The other 
jDassengers and myself paddled on as hard as we could and 
shouted, too — anything that came into our heads — we 
couldn't help it. Straight toward shore we drove the big 
canoe, almost lifting it out of the water. The long, broad- 
bladed paddles whipped through the water, and the shout- 
ing was like that when the cowboys repulse the Indians at 
a Buffalo Bill performance. Three other canoes were out 
near us. They were working for the same breaker we were 
trying to catch, and all were yelling as hard as they were 
paddling. In one of them Lieutenant Sidney A. Cloman, 
Fifteenth Infantry, the commissary of this expedition, 
was having his first experience in surf riding. He, too, 
was the guest of Mr. Dimond and old Tao-hai was in 
charge of his canoe. The whole outfit of us were in bath- 
ing suits, with pajama coats to prevent the sun from burn- 
ing, and a conglomeration of skull-caps, toques, and straw 
hats for head gear. The Kanakas wore bright yellow 
sweaters and gaudy bandana handkerchiefs tied on their 
heads as turbans. The canoes were bright yellow, the 
colour of the sweaters, trimmed with a black line at the 
gunwales. The day was bright and fair, with the usual 
storm over Punchbowl, the mountain back of Honolulu, 
and little clouds breaking away from it occasionally and 
drifting down toward Diamond Head. 

All abreast the four canoes shot in toward the beach. 
The paddles ripped the clear blue water. The spray 
dashed over the bows. Everybody yelled. No one looked 
behind, but all knew that the big, rolling sea was over- 
taking us. If we did not have sufficient way on the canoe 
the comber would go by us and we should be left the 
objects of derision of all the yelling crews that caught us. 
How we yelled a mixture of Kanaka and English, every- 
body shouting at full lung power, the Kanaka exclamations 
coming with sharp, explosive force that contrasted with 
the slower English like the crack of six-pounders with 



SURF RIDING AND THE HULA 2$ 

the roar of guns ! On we go, and there's hardly time to 
notice fchat we are just a little ahead of the other three 
canoes when ^' There she comes ! " shouts Mr. Dimond. 
There is a sudden lifting of the stern of the canoe, an in- 
stant response in the yells of the crew, a lightning increase 
in speed, and we've caught the roller. The others have 
caught it also, and all four abreast we dash ahead. !N"ow 
paddles are at rest, and down the inshore side of the roller 
we slide, always just ahead of and just under the curling 
crest that breaks into foam almost under the sharp stern 
of the canoe. The speed is tremendous. It seems as if 
we were outrunning the Empire State Express. Lucanias 
and great Kaisers never dreamed of such speed. From 
the sharp cut-water of the canoe the foam flies in two lines 
back up to the crest of the roller. The spray dashes over 
us in streams. And all the time everybody yells. It is 
like the performance of an amateur fire department trying 
to scare out a fire by noise. It is half a mile to the beach, 
but there is hardly time to catch sight of that gorgeous 
rainbow under the black cloud that hangs over Diamond 
Head, we are in so quickly. 

Not yet though, not yet. There is a little back swell, 
caused by the beating back of the big surf from the beach. 
The watchful Mr. Dimond at the helm catches sight of 
it, and his shouting takes the form of directions to his 
Kanakas. The paddles that have been dripping little 
silver balls into the foam, leap forward again. There is a 
sudden spurt by the canoe in response. Two or three 
seconds it lasts, hardly long enough to shout '' Wele ke 
hao '' and we're over it. That long-drawn wolf howl from 
the next canoe is Cloman, voicing his satisfaction that 
Tao-hai has caught the swell too. The others are managed 
well and no one has been left behind. Now the foar still 
abreast drive straight at the beach. We are on the left 
flank, Cloman and Tao-hai are next, the others beyond. 
Mr. Dimond shouts to Tao-hai and gets a staccato re- 
sponse. We are not twenty yards apart and almost on 
the beach. Down goes Mr. Dimond's paddle to port, 
hard held against the rushing sea. Tao-hai follows. Off 
to port we swing and slide by the beach in line, in half a 
foot of water. Skilfully managed were the other canoes 
also. At the instant that we swung to port they swung 



26 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

to starboard, and now, all head back toward the reef where 
the breakers start ; we are standing up in the canoes, 
drenched with the salt spray, but yelling like Indians 
with the pure joy of it. A sport for kings, but one that 
few kings know, and most of these the world regards un- 
civilised. De Quincey found the glory of motion on top 
of a six-horse coach. Others have caught the same spirit- 
ual intoxication in the wild, free forward sweep of a fast 
locomotive. De Quincey mused from the top of his coach 
that the heart of a man was the all-compelling power of 
his glory. It is the heart of nature that heaves the surf 
and drives the surf rider's canoe. 

Out beyond the reef again, waiting for another swell ! 
Down through the glass-clear water we see the coral grow- 
ing at the bottom. Mr. Dimond speaks to one of his 
Kanakas. Over the big fellow goes, yellow sweater, red 
bandana and all. The little column of bubbles that 
followed his descent has all disappeared, and down at the 
bottom we see him tugging at a coral bunch. Presently 
up he comes with a beautiful great piece of coral and a 
broad smile on his face. We take the coral from him and 
he goes down for another piece. Starfish, crabs, tiny lob- 
sters, and dozens of small bright-coloured fish, in appear- 
ance much like fresh- water sunfish, have made their homes 
in the folds of the coral, and now they crawl and flop about 
the bottom of the canoe. The Kanaka comes in with the 
second bunch of coral, and is about to dive again when 
Mr. Dimond shouts to him in apparent excitement. A 
seaward look shows no appearance of a swell to me, but in 
climbs the Kanaka with all haste, and at the paddles we 
go, might and main. The other canoes lying further in- 
shore take the warning and dart away. We are going now 
at racing speed and just in time. The swell behind us has 
developed into a giant. Just as it begins to break we 
catch it and away we dash for the beach. It is the first 
race over again, but this fellow is bigger. The bow of the 
canoe dips under water. Instant shouts from Mr. Dimond 
and the Kanakas and all three paddles are jammed into 
the water, holding hard, to stop the tremendous headway. 
The momenta's check serves the purpose. The long stem 
of the canoe rides on top again, and on we go. 

Now Mr. Dimond shows us a trick that requires con- 



SURF RIDING AND THE HULA 2/ 

summate skill and judgment. We are shouting a de- 
risive challenge to Cloman in the other canoe, when Mr. 
Dimond drives down his paddle broad across the course. 
Sharp off to port swings the canoe on the very top of the 
giant roller. The foam breaks all about us and gallons 
of it come aboard. The Kanakas laugh and shout, but 
the passengers hold their breath. The outrigger rides free 
of the water and we are broad away on top of the wave, 
rolling beachward beam on. Still Mr. Dimond holds his 
paddle hard to port. Presently the canoe answers. The 
outrigger drops into the sea again, the roller passes out 
from under us and leaves us headed out to sea. Some- 
where out of sight, on the other side of the swell, rise the 
shouts of Cloman and Tav-tai, fooled for a moment into 
thinking we have lost the comber. 

" That is what we would have to do/^ says Mr. Dimond 
quietly, " if we saw a swamped canoe just ahead of us.''^ 

It was marvellously done ; even the Kanakas were 
moved to praise the skill of their master. 

JSTow back outside again for a swim in the Pacific beyond 
any reef. What a beautiful picture Honolulu is from 
here. N"estling down in the foreground in front of a 
semicircle of mountains. Diamond Head at the right, just 
at the end of Waikiki, the beautiful beach rises bluff and 
rugged almost out of the sea. Beyond it in the centre is 
Punchbowl, covered on its smoother slopes with cultivated 
fields, cut by sharp-edged gorges, and crowned eternally 
with ever-shifting yet always remaining clouds, and to the 
left at the sea's edge the Pali, with the dreadful cliff over 
which Kamehameha drove his victims when he conquered 
Oahu. All the hundred shades of green show in the foliage 
which hides the buildings of the city, specked with yellow 
and white and blue and purple and violet and lilac where 
the flowering trees show through. And over all a myriad 
of flags, always the Stars and Stripes, with two exceptions, 
where over the public buildings float the cross and bars 
of Hawaii. Along the beach swarms of soldiers, the water 
full of them, surf-riding canoes here and there, the white 
sails of a few small yachts dotting the bay, and over all 
the bright sunshine, with that persistent rainbow hanging 
over Diamond Head, one end in the sea and the other just 
at the foot of Punchbowl. 



28 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Now, the swim over, one more roller, and then back along 
the beach to the cottage. One plunge in the deep pool 
where the coral has been blasted out, a cold fresh-water 
shower, and '^ Kerens your drink, sir," along, slender glass, 
with ice in it, and Scotch and soda. Then the last exhibi- 
tion by the Kanakas. An ordinary tumbler two-thirds 
full of clear Scotch down at one gulp, and repeated, with 
a grin and the response to the offer of water : " Too much 
drink. Make drunk." Then a cigar on the veranda, under 
the cocoanut palms, and a song, with banjo and taro patch 
fiddle accompaniment, and the broad, blue Pacific for 
outlook, and the surf booming in almost at the front door- 
step. The sun has dropped from his basket of clouds into 
the western ocean, the electric lights begin to twinkle, 
and — there's dinner. Who wouldn^'t live at Waikiki ? 

Now the dance — the hula-hula — national dance of 
Hawaii, it has been called. As such it was exhibited at 
the Chicago Fair in 1893. This one was on the lawn of 
the residence of one of the largest planters in Hawaii. A 
marquee stood under a bunch of tall palms and there was 
spread the luau, or feast. About the tables gathered half 
a hundred natives. They were garlanded with leis and 
crowned with flowers, and they ate poi with their fingers 
in the good old-fashioned way, while the white strangers 
looked on and commented audibly, to the evident amuse- 
ment of the natives. In front of the marquee was spread 
a mat about ten feet square. Squatting cross-legged be- 
hind the mat were two men who had each a hollow gourd, 
shaped something like an hourglass, except that one-half 
was larger than the other. In each gourd were a lot of 
dried seeds. With their left hands the men lifted the 
gourds, and brought them down smartly on the ground, 
at the same time beating them with the open palms of 
their right hands. The seeds rattled and the result was 
music — if the musicians are to be believed. To this ac- 
companiment the men sang. Most of those who heard the 
song describe it as weird, and I guess it was. It was all 
on one note, a flat level monotone, absolutely without in- 
flection, droned out with a nasal twang and with eyes 
closed. But it served the purpose as admirably as clapping 
does for a darkey dance. 

Out on the mat there stepped two Hawaiian women — by 



SURF RIDING AND THE HULA 29 

courtesy called linla ''girls." Beyond doubt they were 
lithe of body, as the subsequent demonstration showed. 
They wore thin white waists and short, thick salmon- 
coloured skirts that came a little below the knees. Legs 
were bare except for anklets of the same soft material as 
the skirts. Feet were bare. In the glorious days of old, 
before the missionaries ruled the islands, the hula girls 
wore grass skirts and anklets, and that was all. These two 
girls were short and thick-set. Their faces were round 
and flat, their black hair was oiled until it glistened. 
Their arms were bare and about their necks they wore leis. 
The music struck up. They stretched out their right 
arms, ejaculated something that sounded like " Melican 
man getta da gooda banan " and began a series of most 
amazing abdominal contortions. The only leg motion was 
a short forward jump, most of the time both feet together, 
and the necessary retreat to keep on the mat, usually 
made at the close of the particular dance in which the 
advance occurred. 

Each dance lasted from three to five minutes, and was 
supposed to exemplify some particular phase of life, or to 
accompany some particular prayer, or to have something 
to do with some particular kind of worship of something 
or other. For the contortions, language is weak in ade- 
quate description. The most eminent contortionist who 
ever performed in all the circuses of the world fails mis- 
erably in comparison. The abdominal display began by 
being simply protuberant, and the repression of the mis- 
sionaries had contrived only to heighten the effect by the 
skilful concealment brought about by the flimsy w^aists 
the dancers wore. From simply protuberant the display 
progressed rapidly through all the movements of the 
soldier's manual. Advance and retreat, right and left- 
oblique and wheel were easy. It was when the manual 
was exhausted and the complications came in that the 
exhibition became lively. Practical illustrations of the 
cissoid of Diodes, the conchoid of Xicomedes and all the 
spirals, coils, curves and twists that mathematics knows 
followed the simpler movements. And it all wound up 
with a grand climax of wriggling, hips and shoulders 
motionless meanwhile, and then the arms were extended 
again and the old chant was repeated, " Melican man 



30 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

getta da gooda banan/' Throughout this performance 
the arms kept up a continual delineation of imaginary geo- 
metrical figures in the air. The gourd gentlemen pounded, 
shook, and chanted, and the man in the moon beheld it 
without a grin. 

Seated about the square mat were the spectators, the 
white ducks and blue uniforms of the men contrasting 
with the soft colours of the dresses of the women. A flar- 
ing torch here and there gave a flickering, uncertain light, 
and the background was the deep green of the turf and 
the trees. General, Colonels, navy Captains, army Cap- 
tains, Lieutenant-Colonels, Majors, and Lieutenants sat 
together, and it was a great time. Part of the time four 
girls danced at once on the mat, and when it rained, as it 
did for a few minutes, the mat was moved inside the tent. 
It was all over by 11 o^clock, and the First Brigade of the 
Philippine army had seen the hula. 

Of course, you knew all about the protests made by the 
representatives of the French and Spanish Governments 
in Honolulu to the Hawaiian Government about the re- 
ception of the United States soldiers, but there is a joke 
about the Spanish protest which you may not have heard. 
The Spanish representative is a German whose personal 
preference is for the annexation of the islands to the 
LTnited States. As a German annexationist he subscribed 
to the fund for the entertainment of the boys. Then, as 
the Spanish representative, he protested. And he pro- 
fessed great grief that his protest had so little effect. 

Honolulu and her mountains are out of sight now. 
Ahead the dull gray Charleston leads the way toward 
Manila, steaming about nine knots an hour, with two 
curious square sails set, one on each mast. The three 
troopships follow in line abreast, the Sydney on the right, 
next the Australia, and the Peking on the left. The 
stars come out and for the first time we raise the Southern 
Cross, much vaunted in poetry and story, five faint stars 
that show little brilliancy to repay the fine things that 
have been said and written about them. To the north the 
Dipper, a far brighter constellation, shows low down to the 
horizon. Behind us the moon rises round and full, out 
of the low-lying bank of blue-black clouds that fringe the 
horizon. Ahead, through a rift, brighter than ever planet 



TROOPSHIP DIVERSIONS 3I 

flared, Venns, the evening star, marks the west. West by 
south, half west the compass shows the course — and out 
there beyond the dim skyline, five thousand knots away 
and more, lies Manila, the goal. 



CHAPTER VI 

TEOOPSHIP diyersio:n'S 

UxiTED States Transport Australia, E^q" route to 
Manila, at Sea. Su:n"day, June 5. — At breakfast this 
morning probably not half a dozen of the 1,000 men 
aboard the Australia had ever heard of Guam or the 
Ladrone Islands. Now everybody is studying the map or 
a chart or reading whatever can be found about the islands 
in the chaplain's library. The Captain^s copy of '^ The 
North Pacific Directory " has been the rounds among the 
ofiicers, and we all know the latitude, longitude and climate 
of the place we are going to capture. It created a great 
stir aboard the convoy this morning when the signals from 
the Charleston were made out. At sea the Charleston 
is boss of the little squadron, because Captain Glass, her 
commander, is the senior naval officer. 

There had been a lot of signalling going on among the 
ships of the convoy on the way down to Honolulu, for 
practice, and some of the officers on the Australia were 
getting i^roficient enough to read wigwag signals with 
considerable accuracy. This morning, when the Charles- 
ton called the Australia and began a message to General 
Anderson, there was an interested group along the rail 
trying to find out what it was all about. They caught just 
words enough to start a lot of excitement and speculation 
and there was great satisfaction when Lieutenant McCain, 
General Anderson's Assistant Adjutant General, made 
public the message. This is what it said : 

*' Ge^s". Axdeeso:n" : My instructions require me to cap- 
ture the Spanish forts and vessels at the islands of Guam 



32 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

en route to Manila. The transports will accompany this 
ship to Guam, as only two or three days^ delay will occur. 
This may be made public. " Glass. ^' 

The first inclination was to cheer, but almost instantly 
there arose the doubt that will not down, which is very 
disturbing. Action, sure, and we shall see it. That is 
the first thought. But shall we see it ? There's the doubt. 
Will the Charleston go in alone and do her work, or will 
the troopships accompany her ? The whole afternoon 
has been given up to this absorbing question. It hardly 
stopped for service, which the chaplain held on the hur- 
ricane deck. It has interrupted, accompanied and punc- 
tuated the assiduous study of all that was obtainable in 
the way of information about the islands. 

One of the ship's Quartermasters is an old whaler. 
Twenty-five years ago he touched at Guam for wood and 
water, and in his opinion it's a *''' just no-account place 
whatever.'' The third mate, Mr. Hallett, has been there 
within a few years, and he's blessed if he ever saw a fort 
there. But we know they are there. The Pacific Direc- 
tory says there are two of them upon the hills, and there's 
likely to be a fine bombardment. And maybe we shall 
have to land some troops. Perhaps some of the Spanish 
gunboats that fled from the Philippines have taken refuge 
there. We don't know for sure that any got away from 
Dewey, but we hope some did and that we shall find them 
there. And perhaps there will be some transports to take. 
^N'obody can tell just what transports would be doing at 
such a place, but then they may be there, and, by jingo, 

if they are The only sure thing about it is that Guam 

is at least two weeks away, so we shall have plenty of time 
to decide these minor as well as the weighty questions of 
what we shall do some time before we get there. 

Yesterday, when we pulled out of Honolulu, the Oregon 
officers were a picturesque lot, they came aboard after 
their brief stay in Honolulu arrayed in immaculate white 
duck, cotton and linen — in white duck that was once im- 
maculate, but will have shrunk a lot in the wash before 
it is so again — in all shades of brown and speckled linen 
and wool crash, in seven different kinds of caps, some all 
white and some white and black, and scarcely any two 



TROOPSHIP DIVERSIONS . 33 

shaped alike. They wore white canvas shoes of sharp 
toes, round toes and square toes, high cut and low cut ; 
brown canvas shoes of as many varieties or more, for some of 
them had white straps on the brown shoes ; black and tan 
leather shoes and patent leathers. Their coats showed a 
curious and interesting diversity of opinion in the matter 
of braid. They showed also a childlike and confiding 
trust in the knowledge of the Chinese tailors of Honolulu 
as to what the ^' regulation braid ^' is. Some were braided 
and some were not. Those that were bore braids of all 
widths, but mostly of the same pattern. Some had brass 
buttons with anchors on them, others had brass buttons 
with guns, and some just plain brass. Some had pearl 
buttons and some bone. Some had the proper little slits 
in the side for the sword, and some had curious little im- 
itation shoulder straps. All were worn with perfect un- 
concern and self-complacency as *^ uniform." 

General Anderson took one glance around and held a short 
conversation with his Adjutant. At luncheon all the 
Oregon officers appeared in the regulation blue. It was 
hot, but it was uniform. This afternoon it got so hot that 
the General relented. Perhaps he found the blue a bit 
uncomfortable. His own white duck is faultless, but 
Oregon is more picturesque than ever, for it has added 
Chinese bath slippers to its list of footgear. Also, some 
of them have fished out big red silk handkerchiefs, such 
as the privates have, and wear them carelessly about the 
neck. A few stick to blue and sweat. They looked like 
a combination of Fire Zouaves and Amoskeag Veterans, 
but they were in the way of being cool, and that is greatly 
to be desired. 

The sea is very quiet, but the Australia lives up to her 
rolling reputation, and to-night some of the officers and 
men who had lost their sea legs in the two days in Honolulu 
were seasick again, very much to their disgust and the 
amusement of their comrades. 

All day bunches of soft, downy cotton and black velvet 
clouds wandered aimlessly about the sky. The horizon 
was ringed with them constantly, and the sun went blaz- 
ing down into them, throwing its red light behind it and 
lighting them up like a furnace glare on a dark night. 
The Charleston tested her searchlights this evening, and 

3 



34 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

where the long beams tipped the waves and tonched the 
little hillocks of water uplifted on the crests there gleamed 
a series of silver flashes that a score of times brought the 
outcry : ^' Look at the lights/' In the east a single battle- 
mented tower of black rose straight out of the sea, and 
behind it, fringing its edges with pale gold, came the full 
moon. Straight up between the battlements of the gloomy 
tower it rose, and its soft light spread in a broad shifting 
bar to where the wake of the Australia, star-dusted with 
the broken phosphor flame of the southern sea, disappeared 
in the waste behind us, a broad, white, spangled track. 

Up on the hurricane deck the string band of E Company 
have been playing some of the old home songs. Just now 
they are singing : 

I know a valley fair. 

So do we all — fair and far. 

Tuesday, June 7. — The troopship has been resolved into 
a schoolship. There are three schools a day, with some- 
times an extra session thrown in. The first is in the 
morning, when the volunteer officers gather in the main 
saloon and listen to a lecture on the regulations by one of 
the staff officers. Sometimes the Quartermaster is the 
lecturer ; sometimes the Assistant Adjutant-General is 
the schoolmaster ; sometimes the commissary talks. All 
sorts of conditions which may arise are discussed, and all 
phases of army life explained at length. The regulations 
are taken up seriatim by sections. The volunteer officers 
fire all sorts of questions at the regulars, who are perfect 
encyclopaedias of military information. 

The morning school has devoted itself particularly to 
department work, subsistence and quartermasters, and 
now there is to be an evening school in tactics. The 
morning school lasts until luncheon, and soon after that 
is over the non-commissioned officers of the First Battalion 
face their Major and begin the recitation of regulations 
and minor tactics. This is a very businesslike school. 
The Major conducts it with decision, precision and celerity. 
The Sergeants and Corporals are required to memorise 
certain parts of the regulations. The regulations provide 
that such work shall be done. They have been paying 
particular attention to the duties of sentries, pickets and 



TROOPSHIP DIVERSIONS 35 

outposts, and the first thing each afternoon, after the non- 
com, roll is called, is for the men to recite in turn : " My 
general orders are to walk my post in a military manner," 
etc., through all the list of a sentry^s duties. The men 
take to the school kindly enough, but some of them seem to 
have trouble in committing the regulations to memory, al- 
though they remember the substance of them well enough. 

As soon as the First Battalion school is dismissed the 
newcomers of the Second Battalion take their turn with 
their Major. The Adjutant of this battalion acts as recorder, 
and, carrying out the idea of a school, has a marking 
system and grades, the work of the Sergeants and Cor- 
porals. The Major told the men at the first session that 
these records would be kept for reference in the future as 
part of the men's records. 

All the non-coms, did their best to put their school- 
masters in the '^ sweat box/' and once they neatly suc- 
ceeded. It was in the matter of saluting the Colonel. The 
First Sergeant replied that if he were on post ]^o. 1 and 
saw his Colonel approaching he would turn out the guard. 
Eight. If it were after dark he would challenge. Eight 
again. Up bobs another Sergeant. '' Sometimes," he 
says, " the order is not to challenge until after 10 o'clock. 
What would you do if the Colonel came between retreat 
and 10 o'clock ?" 

This was to the Major, and he hadn't thought of that 
contingency. 

*'As you were directed," he replied after a moment. 
The Sergeant sat down with a puzzled grin on his face, 
and a Corporal jumped up and finished the trick. 

^'^ Who would direct us," he asked, ^^and what would 
the directions be ? " 

The Major got red in the face and the discreet Adjutant 
consulted his record. ^^ We will settle that to-morrow," 
said the Major, '^and go on now with the lesson," and all 
in the world the sentry does do in such a case is to salute 
and call the Corporal of the guard. It appears that in 
the army, as in other professions, little points are over- 
looked sometimes. 

Here is a curious fact about this Oregon regiment. 
Congress went out of its way to frame the law for the 
calling out of troops in such a manner that the National 



36 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Guard would surely be taken. It worked as far as the 
orficers were concerned, but not with the men. Company 
H has the largest number of guardsmen of all the Oregon 
companies, and Captain McDonell has just twenty-nine 
members of his old compan}^ with him. That is about 34 
per cent. If that holds good throughout the country, the 
army of ^' trained soldiers " which was to be recruited from 
the National Guard is two-thirds green men. 

Wednesday, June 8. — West by south, half south, 
steadily toward Guam the course has been since leaving 
Honolulu. At first it was just going south to the 20th 
parallel, but then the signals from the Charleston set the 
course still to the south instead of dead west. The orders 
to Captain Glass to take Guam were sealed, and he did not 
open them until he was a full day out from Honolulu. 
Now that we are getting down more and more toward the 
enemy's country there is increasing speculation as to the 
chance of falling in with a Spanish ship. 

There has not been much serious consideration of that 
possibility aboard the Australia, but the Sydney has a fully 
prepared scheme of defence. At Honolulu one of the 
naval ofi&cers aboard the Sydney entertained General An- 
derson's staff with the details of the plan. At sight of the 
Spaniard the Sydney is to run. If it appears that the 
Spaniard is too fast for her she will heave to and have re- 
course to this plan : When she heaves to all the volunteers 
aboard are to be sent below. The three companies of the 
Fourteenth Eegulars will be ordered to lie down on the 
decks along the rails, concealing themselves completely 
from the sight of parties approaching in small boats. To 
them will be served a full supply of ammunition, and they 
will all have their new army rifles, which are very high- 
powered guns. The flag will not be struck when the 
Sydney heaves to, so that this will all be fair fighting. 
When the boarding boats, coming alongside, get in proper 
range, the regulars will open fire and the boarding party 
will be annihilated. As soon as firing begins the Sydney 
will go ahead at full steam and trust to luck and the con- 
sternation of the Spaniards to get away. Isn't that a 
great scheme ? 
The Peking and Australia are simply relying on the Charles- 
ton. If she should fail in the almost inconceivable emer- 



TROOPSHIP DIVERSIONS 37 

gency, and we could not run away, why you won't see this 
' — at least, until after it is intended and expected you shall. 
But, joking aside, there has been and is some attention 
given to the matter. The sailing orders of the convoy, as 
originally given, contemplated only resort to all possible 
speed to get away. To-day these orders were modified by 
the Charleston. Three sets of flags were going on the 
cruiser at once as she wigwagged this message to the skip- 
pers of the transports : 

^' These signals will be used in case a strange vessel is 
sighted at night. A rocket followed by a blue light will 
be used for a sailing vessel. If a steamer is sighted the 
blue light will be followed by a rocket. The danger sig- 
nal at night from the convoy will be a rocket followed by 
a red Coston signal ; from the Charleston it will be three 
red lights shown from the foremast. When the Charles- 
ton shows the danger signal the vessels of the convoy will 
stop and await orders. Glass." 

We're getting so expert a wigwagging on the Australia 
that the message was all taken down by several little 
groups of officers. There was a buzz of talk about it, as 
it revived the old speculation. Presently Captain Glass 
modified the order by adding : 

" If you have no red Coston signals, show a red light at 
the masthead for a danger signal at night." 

So now we have our code made up, and the " night 
owls " who take their enjoyment of the cool night breeze 
awake and on deck will have an added incentive for crowd- 
ing the bridge and bothering the officer of the watch. 

We begin to wonder what the temperature in Manila is 
like. The books say that it is hot and humid. It is hot 
here, and humid, too, but not unendurably so, and we are 
as far south as we shall be at Manila. If there were ice on 
the ship and the galley were not such a furnace that the 
whole ship responds to its warming, and if she did not 
roll so that the ports below could be kept open a little for 
ventilation, and if a few other things were different we 
would be much more comfortable and life on a troopship 
— this troopship, anyway — would be much less undesirable. 



38 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 



CHAPTER VII 

A MATTER OF TO-MORROWS 

Thursday, June 9. — To-morrow we cross the 180th 
meridian, and thereby arises a complication, for there will 
be no to-morrow. We just drop it out of the reckoning. 
This is June 9, Thursday ; the next day will be June 11, 
Saturday. If you consider that a bit you will recognise a 
very anomalous condition. To-morrow, to-day will be day 
before yesterday. To-day, to-morrow is day after to-mor- 
row, and to-morrow, day after to-morrow, instead of being 
to-morrow will be to-day. To-day is to-day here and in 
Honolulu, but to-morrow will be to-day where we are and 
yesterday in San Francisco. When it becomes to-morrow 
in San Francisco it will be day after to-morrow with us. 
Yesterday, to-day was to-morrow, but to-day, to-morrow 
is day after to-morrow. It's as clear as the demonstration 
for squaring the circle. The parson has been in hot ar- 
gument about it with all comers all the afternoon. He's 
fairly talking cotton, but he's game to keep it up for days 
yet. 

This crossing of the 180th meridian is a great per- 
formance. You don't do it very often. If you could only 
manage it once a day you could live to be just twice as old 
as you will where you are. It's like living in a balloon 
and letting the world swing under you. Old time would 
go by with never a care for you. The parson has been 
figuring it out how it comes that this day is dropped com- 
pletely out of the reckoning, how it is that you can start a 
twenty-four-hour run on the 9th and finish it on the 
11th. He argues that as we have been travelling west day 
by day, it has taken the sun a little longer each day to 
catch up to us and get directly overhead. We've been 
storing this added time away in our inside pockets each 
day and saying nothing. 

Now all of a sudden we wake up to the fact that we 
have actually sequestered a whole day, and in order to 



A MATTER OF TO-MORROWS 39 

square ourselves with our consciences and the rest of the 
world, we've got to set it free again. 

The parson^s a great controversialist. He's a blue Pres- 
byterian, in spite of the fact that his grandfather drew 
lots with his grandmother to see whether she would marry 
him or not. He operates, therefore^ as a second cause 
of a gamble, and as the Westminster creed or some other 
creed that the Presbyterians use particularly disclaims 
divine responsibility for secoiid causes, his position is 
anomalous, but he holds his own with the whole Oregon 
contingent in pitched battle, and stands ready at any time 
to add muscular force to persuasive logic. 

Crossing the 180th meridian has been a godsend to the 
intellectual life of this expedition. The subjects of dis- 
cussion were getting a bit worn. The main one, of course, 
was the possibility of taking Manila with this expedition. 
All sorts of theories were advanced. Dewey can and Dewey 
can^t, and we can and we can't. Dewey will land all the 
viray from 400 to 3,000 men, and that will be plenty with 
our own 3,000. All the possibilities of capture and govern- 
ment are considered and every difl&culty brushed aside, 
When that subject flags, and the parson has been badgered 
into weariness, there is the subject of getting mail at 
Manila, and the mailing back from Honolulu of the mil- 
lion or fewer letters we wrote there. Flying fish have 
got rather old, and the science of wigwagging has been so 
well learned as to have lost its first interest. The Ladrone 
Islands 2:)all, and Spanish grammars and books on tactics 
put one to sleep indifferently. 

So this meridian gag revived old desires and furnished 
new vigour to the discussion. The fact of the business is 
that the trip is monotonous enough for most of the men. 
It's hot all the time, the thermometer hardly gets below 85" 
at night, and it's humid all the time. Hot weather was 
expected, and there's no complaint about it to speak of ; 
but it's wearing, and the Oregon men remember the cool 
nights in their pleasant valleys and now and again are 
homesick. The days drag, in spite of all the things there 
are to do — all the work and all the schools — and it will be 
a great relief to reduce Guam. After that a week or ten 
days Avill put us in touch with Dewey, and action will set 
the sluggish blood going again. 



40 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Satukday, June 11. — Slap, bang, smack, right square 
over the dividing line between day after to-morrow and 
day before yesterday we steamed at 3 o'clock this morning, 
and all the anomalous conditions we were discussing last 
night — it really was last night, although in the calendar it 
was day before yesterday — have come to pass. But there 
is no apparent difference in fact. There wasn't the 
slightest disturbance when we crossed the line. Most 
everybody was asleep. It's just as hot as it ever has been, 
and no hotter. All day the clouds have fringed the skyline 
just as usual, and doubled up their fists and shaken them 
at us and wagged their silly heads in foolish, ineffectual 
threats. All day we dared them to come on and show us 
some rain, but they never once got up their courage to 
the saturation point. 

We celebrated the coincidence of crossing the meridian 
and Saturday night together. It was General Anderson 
who arose at the close of the dinner, when the glasses had 
been charged all around, and proposed ^' Sweethearts and 
wives," in the good old way they do every Saturday night 
in the navy, '^ May our wives always be our sweethearts 
and our sweethearts always become our wives." Then 
everybody '^ drank out" — there was ice from somewhere 
for the fizz — and everybody cheered, and it remained only 
for one irreverent young army officer to say, way under his 
breath to his next neighbour, '' Sweethearts and wives, may 
they never meet." 

After ^' Sweethearts and wives " there was the health of 
General Anderson, who made a little speech, and of Colonel 
Summers, who responded for the Oregon boys, and said they 
were ready for what might come. And then Lieutenant 
Holcombe of the navy responded for his service, but Captain 
Houdlette of the Australia dodged, and everybody came on 
deck, where it was a few degrees cooler than in the saloon, 
to continue the celebration. The band came down and 
played, and some of the boys did songs and pieces with 
their mandolins and guitars. Major Jones, the Quarter- 
master, danced a jig, and everybody sang the old home 
songs and swore new allegiance. '' They change their 
skies above them, but not their hearts that roam." 

Feiday, June 17. — We are going to play a scurvy trick 
on an estimable Spanish gentleman in the island of Guam, 



A MATTER OF TO-MORROWS 4I 

nnless that gentleman has already removed himself from 
his bailiwick. The intention is to give him a free trip to 
Manila, where it is likely he has friends. That part of it 
might please him well enough, but the attendant circum- 
stances are likely to be vexatious ; for he will go as a 
prisoner of war, and that is held to be distressing to the 
personal comfort of Governors-general. 

Last Friday, the 10th, was the day we didn't have. 
This morning, just when we had got the chaplain into a 
most perspicacious discussion of the question of where we 
were a week ago to-day, there began a vigorous wigwag- 
ging on the Charleston. The chajjlain was endeavouring 
to controvert the proposition that a week ago to-day we 
were in the same place we were in at the time of the argu- 
ment, the proof against him being the well-known logical 
demonstration that we were in some other place than no 
place, which place this place is. About the time that the 
chaplain was getting most in earnest about such fallacious 
reasoning the Charleston's wigwags began to take this 
shape : 

'^ Charleston will heave to at 2 p. m. for target practice 
At same time Captain Class will go on board Australia 
to see General Anderson and Captain Houdlette," 

That meant a conference about Guam surely. The 
Peking and Sydney got a lot of wigwagged orders about 
what to do, and at last when the Charleston set the signal 
to heave to the four ships were close together. The 
cruiser signalled the Australia to come abeam, and then 
Captain Glass called away the first whaleboat and came on 
board the Australia. Very soon afterward Commander 
Gibson and Captain Smith came over from the Peking and 
then Captain Pillsbury from the Sydney. There was a con- 
ference in Captain Houdlette's cabin with General Ander- 
son and Lieutenant Holcombe, the naval ofl&cer on the 
Australia. 

The charts of the Ladrone Islands were gone over, and 
Mr. Hallett, the third mate of the Australia, who has been 
to Guam several times, told the officers what he knew of 
the harbours. It was decided that he shall go to the 
Charleston as pilot when we reach the island. The con- 



42 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

ference decided that the Charleston shall go into the har- 
bour of San Luis d'Apra alone, the troopships lying out- 
side. It is possible that one or more fugitive Spanish 
gunboats may be lying there. There are two forts, St. 
lago and Santa Cruz, with an old ruin, San Luis. The 
Charleston will batter down the forts and take the gun- 
boats — if any happen to be there. 

Then the scurvy trick will be played. Over in his stone 
house at Agana the military Governor may be waiting for 
callers. He might as well wait there as anywhere else, 
better in fact, for that^s about the only comfortable place 
on the island, which is only twenty-seven miles long by 
less than ten wide. General Anderson will land several com- 
panies of the Second Oregon from the Australia and visit 
the military Governor of Guam in state. He will require 
the Governor to remove the Spanish flag from his residence, 
and gently but firmly will invite him on board the 
Australia, to accompany the First Brigade to Manila. 
Then hurrah for Monday ! We shall sight Guam that 
morning, and then the fun begins. 

While the conference was going on in Captain Houd- 
lette^'s cabin, the Charleston was whaling away with her big 
guns. The target, the usual pyramidal arrangement of 
white cloth with a black spot on each face, was set adrift, 
and when it was about two miles away the cruiser opened 
on it with her forward 6-inch gun in the port broadside. 
The solid shot went straight at the target, but high, and 
struck the water about half a mile beyond it. A great 
column of spray and water shot into the air when the shell 
struck, and for a few seconds the cruiser was hidden in 
the cloud of blue-white smoke that floated away quickly 
in the fresh breeze. Then the midships 6-inch gun of 
the port broadside let go with a solid shot. This, too, 
was high, but better than the first. The after gun of 
the three in the broadside took its turn and improved 
on the other two, but was still high. The target, you 
know, stood about six feet up from the water. The first 
shot probably would have gone over a ship, but the other 
two would have struck an enemy squarely. After the 
broadside fire the Charleston swung around* so that her 
after 8-inch gun bore well on the target and let go an 
armour-piercing projectile. It was a capital shot, The big 



A MATTER OF TO-MORROWS 43 

lump of steel struck the water jnst short of the target and 
ricocheted to the right, cutting a chunk out of it just 
above the bull's-eye. The spray flew all over the target, 
and for a moment buried it out of sight, so that a shout 
went up on the Australia that the target had been de- 
stroyed. 

The day was clear and fine, and the cruiser was only 
about two miles from the Australia, so that the work was 
perfectly plain. The fresh breeze kicked up a little sea, 
enough "so that one of the jackies in the boat from the 
Peking was made seasick by the bobbing of his boat along- 
side the Australia. The target bobbed up and down on 
the short seas, and the Charleston rolled a little, so that it 
was difficult shooting. She swung on and gave it to the 
target with the starboard broadside, one gun at a time, 
and it was pretty work. Shells were used several times, 
and one burst right beside the target. All would have hit 
the mark if it had been a ship instead of a bit of canvas. 
Then the forward 8-inch gun was tried, and the work of 
the captain of the after gun's crew was almost duplicated. 
Around the ship swung again, and each gun took another 
crack at the target. Xot a shell or jDrojectile went far 
enough wide of the mark to have missed a ship, and some 
of them were beautiful shots. The smoke from the shells 
when they burst sometimes hid the target for a few seconds, 
they went so close to the mark. When it was all over the 
Charleston picked up her target, the Captains went back 
to their ships, and we stood on our course again. Hurrah 
fpr Monday morning and Guam ! 
J To-night when the Charleston tested her signal and 
Searchlights the red and white lanterns of the Ardois 
system spelled out " On the road to Guam, as sung by the 
Charleston sextet : 



*' When we hit that good old town of Guam 
We will make the Spaniards cuss and damn. 
Well introduce them to their Uncle Sam. 
There'll be a hot time in the old town that night.' 

You know the tune. 



-l- 



44 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 



CHAPTER VIII 

the takikg of guam 

Ok Tkanspokt Australia, Poet Sak Luis d'Apra, 
IsLAj^-D OF Guam, Tuesday Night, June 21. — The Mari- 
ana or Ladrone Islands are under the Stars and Stripes. It 
was just a little before 2 o'clock this afternoon when the 
first broad red stripes of Old Gi-lory rose above the ruined 
battlements of Fort Santa Cruz, down the harbour, and the 
6-pounders of the Charleston roared at the twenty-one 
guns that proclaimed to all the world that Guam is ours. 
At the same time the bands of the Second Oregon on the 
Australia and the First California on the City of Peking 
played " The Star-Spangled Banner," and the full-throated 
cheers of 2,500 American soldiers and sailors rang over the 
harbour of San Luis d'Apra from headland to reef, and 
echoed on the battlements above which flew the starry 
banner. It was the national salute to the success of the 
first step away from the old policy of the nation into the 
broader field of expansion and development. 

When the reckoning was made at noon on Sunday it 
showed only about 130 miles yet to go to G-uam, and it 
became apparent that we should do some loafing that 
night so as to reach the island early in the morning. The 
near approach of what everyone felt would be an event- 
ful day revived the somewhat excited interest in the pos- 
sibility of a fight which the heat and the dragging days, 
had helped to flag. To travel at half steam, day after 
day, over a sea dead flat and calm, where the temperature 
is never below 83°, and what little breeze there is follows 
the ship dulls energy and interest. It takes an event of 
some importance to rouse much spirit under such circum- 
stances, and this first conquest of foreign territory over- 
seas was such an event. 

Sunday evening, when the Charleston had gone through 
her regular 7 : 30 test of her lights, the Ardois lanterns 
began their spelling-match again. The system is a curi- 



THE TAKING OF GUAM 45 

ons complication of ones and twos. A white light stands 
for 2 and a red light for 1. The letters are made of com- 
binations, as J is 1122, D is 222, Y is 111, and so on 
through the alphabet and the digits. It is purely an ar- 
bitrary code, but by this time many of the officers on the 
Australia have become conversant with it and can read 
the signals without difficulty. This Sunday night mes- 
sage from the Charleston was to all the ships of the con- 
voy. It said : 

'' Keep sharp lookout for land and vessels. Passing 
signal station on Guam. Charleston will hoist Japanese 
colours. Other vessels same or none.''' 

The chart and the directory say there is a signal station on 
the north end of Guam. It had been arranged at the 
Friday afternoon conference to pass to the west of the 
north end of the island, far enough to avoid being seen 
by the signal man. But there was a chance that we might 
not do it, and so this precaution was taken. It seemed at 
first a bit humiliating to show an alien flag, but the pro- 
fessional soldiers on the Australia told the volunteers that 
the ruse was recognised in international law as legitimate, 
and they went to bed satisfied and eager for the morning. 

The first faint flush on the* eastern horizon found half 
the men on the Australia up and about. Captain Houdlette 
was on the bridge with Mr. Lawless, the first mate, and 
Mr. Anderson, the second mate, who was standing the 
watch. Mr. Hallett, the third mate, had gone over to 
the Charleston the afternoon before to pilot the cruiser 
through the crooked channel past the coral reefs. As the 
more privileged army officers climbed up on the bridge 
with the ship^s officers a faint line appeared above the 
horizon to the eastward. It hung in the cloudbank a 
little above the low swells, and recalled the first appear- 
ance of Molokai the day we got into Honolulu. It was the 
first the First Brigade of the Manila expedition saw of Guam. 

The Australia set her signals to tell the Charleston that 
she had sighted land, but there was no response from the 
cruiser. The warship was ploughing along in the lead at 
the same old nine-knot gait she had held all the way from 
Honolulu, and gave no sign of having seen the land. So 
it went for a quarter of an hour, with the Australians 



46 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

signals flying, when there was a commotion on the Peking, 
whose squadron position to port of the Australia brought 
her nearly half a mile nearer the land. Signals went up, 
and when there was no response from the Charleston a 
rocket was fired. The cruiser^s only answer was to alter 
her course inshore, but it was apparent that her lookouts 
had made out the land. Then through the glasses we 
could see the men at work on the decks of the warship. 
She was clearing for action. It was nearly 5 : 30 o^clock. 

The day broke cloudy and threatening, bearing out the 
assertion of the North Pacific Directory, that it rains con- 
stantly at Gruam. Little sqaalls of rain swept over us con- 
tinually, and there was no sunshine between them. The 
land rose out of the sea slowly as we advanced. We could 
see that it was very green with heavy foliage and thick 
growth of trees. Along the shore was a line of sheer cliffs, 
with a narrow sand beach in front of them. The beach 
was fringed with palms and a heavy tropical growth, 
which sometimes climbed the face of the cliffs. We had 
sighted the little projection just north of the bay of 
Agana. As we steamed along slowly to the southward the 
bay opened out gradually ahead of us. Every fifteen 
minutes or so a raiu squall hid it entirely from view. The 
Charleston signalled the convoy to form column on her 
starboard beam, the Peking 800 yards from her and the 
others 800 yards apart in the rear of the Peking. The 
Charleston drew further and further inshore and in the 
intervals between squalls advanced rapidly. The convoy 
got pretty well in and then swung off toward Devil's 
Point, at the west end of Agaiia Bay. The cruiser went 
in as close to the reefs as was safe and made a thorough 
examination of the bay. Then she swung and rejoined 
the convoy. From the transports we could make out an 
occasional thatched roof of a native cottage near the shore, 
and on the line of the hilltops several more in what 
appeared to be cocoanut groves. Just beyond that hill 
line lay Agana, where lived the governor we had come to 
take. 

Down past Devil's Point, close up to the shore, we went, 
the Charleston ahead and inside, the others in column 
following. We could see that the cruiser was cleared for 
action and the men were at quarters. The boats had been 



THE TAKING OF GUAM 47 

gathered together on the snperstrncture and covered with 
wet canvas, lashed down. The wardroom furniture and 
all that would burn or splinter that was possible to move 
had been stowed below the water line, the guns were shot- 
ted and ammunition was served all around from the mag- 
azines. She was ready to make the fight of her life. Her 
crew had been picked up in San Francisco, and many were 
green men, but the month^s work on the way down had 
got them into good shape and their spirit was fine. In 
the forward fighting top Mr. Hallett, the Australian's 
third mate, had taken his station as pilot. He was where 
he could look down into the water and tell from its colour 
the location of the reefs. The water of the Pacific is the 
deep blue of indigo, but where the reefs rise it shades off 
into a lighter blue, and in shallow water takes on a green 
tinge. 

So we came down until we saw and heard the great 
swells break and smash over the Luminan reefs at the 
head of Apepas Island. Keef s and island stand the north- 
ern guards of the beautiful harbour of San Luis d'Apra. 
Between them and the Orote peninsula the water is very 
deep and the anchorage fine over the greater part of the 
bay. But inshore the coral has been growing very fast 
and reefs abound, making navigation difficult and mighty 
dangerous. The channels are narrow and tortuous, and 
the coral rocks are sharp enough to punch holes in the 
bottom of a stout boat. 

Just off the western end of Apepas Island the transports 
halted. The rain squalls continued, and it was impossible 
to make out whether anything was in the harbour or not. 
In fact, from the Australia we could not make out the 
harbour, and thought it was beyond Orote peninsula. The 
Charleston went on, and when she reached Point Orote 
we cursed our luck, for we thought we were not going to 
see the fight or the bombardment of the forts. A minute 
later we were cheering her with might and main, for she 
had turned to the eastward again and was following the 
narrow but deep channel along the north side of the pen- 
insula. 

A giant boulder stands at the head of the peninsula, 
detached from the main cliff by a little stretch of water 
about 200 feet wide. As the cruiser passed this open space 



48 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

we made out that she was on one side of the rocks. Then 
she disappeared as suddenly and mysteriously as if she 
had steamed into a cavern. We looked for her with 
anxious eyes, and every glass on the convoy was searching 
for her. Along the cliff there were occasional white spots, 
where the foliage, which in many places covered the rocks, 
left a bare space. Finally some one on the Australia saw 
that one of these white spots was moving, and sung out. 
We looked the closer, and made out that the moving white 
spot was the Charleston. It was the canvas over the boats 
on the superstructure. Against the blue-grey and the 
greens of the cliffs, through air thickened by the con- 
tinual mist or rain, the lead-coloured cruiser was absolutely 
invisible. With her boats overboard instead of on the 
superstructure we could not have made her out. 

The ships of the convoy moved up closer, under the 
common desire to see the fun. As the Australia came 
clear of the west end of Apepas Island, Mr. Lawless, the 
old first mate, who was using the big long glass, jumped 
away from the bridge rail and began literally to hop up 
and down. He waved the glass about and shouted : 

'' There she comes ! there she comes ! by gorry, she's a 
cruiser ! There's a cruiser, and she's coming out with a 
bone in her mouth. Now we'll see a scrap. Get ready 
for the shooting. It'll begin in a minute." 

Sure enough, there was a tall, white ship of some sort 
just beyond Apepas. At first sight she looked as if she 
were coming out, but as the Australia got further in and 
the ship came out clearer behind the island, we made out 
that she was at anchor. The Charleston steamed slowly 
along, and her forward motion was the only sign of life 
aboard her. Presently we made out the ship as a brigan- 
tine, with taller spars than any warship carries. But her 
nationality was still unknown. Then there fluttered at 
the main truck a small white flag. By this time Mr. Law- 
less had got over his first enthusiasm, and the excitement 
his announcement had created on the bridge had quieted 
down. The Oregon soldiers were crowded along the rails, 
straining their eyes trying to make out what was happen- 
ing inshore. Some of them had climbed into the main 
and mizzen rigging, and the fore rigging was full of offi- 
cers. Some had climbed up to the foreyard and were 



THE TAKING OF GUAM 49 

seated along it, their white duck suits blackened and 
smutched in streaks and spots by the soot and grime on 
the rigging. Some of them were in the fore topmast 
shrouds, and even as high as the fore to^'gallant yard. 

" D'ye make out any red in that flag ? '^ shouted Mr. 
Lawless from the bridge. 

There was only a slight breeze, but it whistled through 
the rigging with such a noise that the mate's hail was not 
heard. Presently he followed his question up the rigging 
and took a look for himself. It was with a sorrowful 
face that he turned away. He had seen a red ball in the 
middle of a white flag. 

*' She's a Japanee," he said and hope of a fight in that 
direction fled. 

But there was still some forts to be considered : possibly 
they might resist. The Charleston had made out the 
brigantine some time before the Australia did and had had 
her own little bit of excitement. She was so close in by 
Apepas Island on her way o^er from Agana Bay that she 
saw the spars of the brigantine over the island. Apepas 
is a long, narrow, low strip of rock covered with a heavy 
growth of short palms and thick underbrush. When the 
spars were first made out it was decided quickly that they 
belonged to a merchantman, but when the cruiser got be- 
yond the end of the island and the tall white sides of the 
brigantine showed over the breakers on Luminan reefs 
Captain Grlass turned on the bridge and shouted to Lieu- 
tenant-Commander Blocklinger, the executive officer : 

'' By George ! just my luck. She's a cruiser." 

The grins on the faces of the silent men at the guns 
showed how the Captain's '' bullies " hoped it was his luck, 
but they were doomed to disappointment. The watchful 
traders on the brigantine were not long in making out the 
Stars and Stripes flying from every point of vantage on the 
Charleston, and they recognised her for a United States 
warship. They knew about the strained relations between 
the United States and Spain when they started out on 
their voyage, and they lost no time in hoisting the colours 
of a Japanese merchantman, a white pennant with a red 
ball in the centre. There was keen disappointment on 
the Charleston when the peaceful flag floated out at the 
main truck of the brigantine. At first they thought it 
4 



50 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

was a white flag and that the vessel was Spanish, but had 
surrendered without trying a fight. Then they made out 
what the flag really was, and saw that no guns were car- 
ried, and knew that they had no prize to take, with or 
without a flght. 

But there were still the forts, and, as on the Australia, 
they turned hopefully to them. The target practice they 
had had on the way down from Honolulu had made the 
men confident of their ability to smash any Spanish for- 
tification to pieces. They had been drilled at the guns 
until they could work them blindfolded, and half the men 
in every gun crew were fit to be gun captains. So she 
crossed from the end of Luminan reefs, almost to Orote 
Point, and turned east into the harbour. From there the 
whole harbour lay open before them, and her ofiicers could 
see that but for the Japanese brigantine it was empty. 
Hope lay only in the forts. 

All this time the Charleston had been proceeding very 
slowly and with the utmost caution. Solid shot were in 
the forward 6-inch guns and a shell in the big 8-inch rifle 
on the fo^c's'le. The gun captains stood with lanyards 
ready to pull, and at the secondary battery the gunners 
had their shoulders on the rests. A short distance in 
from Point Orote an old fort crowns the hill. The cliffs 
along the north side of Orote peninsula rise sheer from the 
water almost 200 feet. There is a fringe of green at the 
bottom and a heavy growth along the crest. Three hun- 
dred yards from the point a little sand beach stretches 
along for a couple of hundred yards, and back of that 
there is a little cocoanut grove. Just to the east of this 
grove the basaltic rocks tower straight out of the sea. 
There the cliff juts out a little beyond the general line, 
and at this point the Spaniards built their fort. With 
proper guns and gunners, a modern fort there could stand 
off the natives of all the world. The chart showed the 
presence of this old fort. St. lago, but there was no in- 
formation as to its condition. The channel is less than 
300 yards wide. Squarely in the middle of the channel, 
at less than half speed, the Charleston steamed ahead. 
Not a sound came from her except the ^^ hush-hush '' of 
escaping steam from her exhaust, and the soft lapping of 
the little waves about her bows and along her side. Fairly 



THE TAKING OF GUAM 5 1 

under the old Fort St. lago she went, so close that the 
Spaniards could have hurled hand bombs and dynamite 
on her decks, but there were no Spaniards and no bombs, 
and she rounded the little point beyond the old fort and 
was out of range, with never a sign of resistance. 

The Peking, Australia, and Sydney were lying outside 
the reefs watching with all eyes the movements of the 
cruiser. The day had cleared a bit, and the watchers, 
grown accustomed to the appearance of the lead-coloured 
warship against the dull background of cliffs, could follow 
her more clearly than at first. As she rounded the point 
beyond Fort St. lago she raised Fort Santa Cruz, built on 
a low coral reef, out in the middle of the harbour. Cap- 
tain Glass called to Lieuteant Commander Blocklinger to 
try out the fort with his small quick fires and see if he got 
a respotise. Mr. Blocklinger spoke to the officer in whose 
division the 3-pounder rifles are and the little guns 
furthest forward on the starboard side responded. The 
watchers on the transports caught the flash and saw the 
smoke, and a cheer such as the island of Guam had never 
heard rose from the three ships. The little shell flew 
straight for the fort, but fell a little short. The forward 
gun on the port side followed, and the gunners profited 
by the trial of the starboard gun. Fair over the middle 
of the old fort the shell burst. The flash of it was caught 
by the spectators on the troopships and a wild yell went 
up from th^m all. They thought it was a response from 
the fort. fThe Charleston was too far away for the reports 
of the guns to reach the transports, but for a few minutes 
the flashes and the puffs of smoke as the 3-pounders 
were fired filled the souls of the soldiers with glee and the 
cheering was tremendous. Then the firing stopped, ^the 
cheering died out and the action at Guam was all over. 
From first gun to last it was just four minutes and a half. 
It began at 3,000 yards and ended at 2,400. Seven shells 
were fired from the starboard 3-pounders and six from the 
port battery. It was 8 : 30 o'clock on the morning of 
Monday, June 20. 

Then there was a long wait that tried the patience of 
the eager spectators on the transports. The Charleston 
crawled along up the little peninsula for a few hundred 
yards and apparently stoppe^\ n^ 



52 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Outside tlie reefs we drifted idly about and strained our 
eyes to the headache point trying to make out what it was 
all about. The rain squalls that occasionally hid the 
cruiser and the shore from our view drenched us as we sat 
in the rigging and flecked the glasses with drops of water 
so that it was a continual case of clean glasses. At last 
we made out one of the Charleston's boats that had been 
cleared away and was lying under her counter. At that 
time the cruiser was lying directly off the little point that 
jots out to the northward, about half way down Orote pen- 
insula. What the boat was doing nobody could tell. 
Presently two small boats appeared from behind Apepas 
Island, beyond the Japanese brigantine, pulling toward the 
cruiser. It was a long, hard pull, but they kept at it 
steadily and crawled on their course. As they came clear 
of the ^^ Japanee " we made out the Spanish flag flying 
bravely from the stern of the boat in the lead. More boats 
appeared about the Charleston from nowhere that we 
could make out and the mystery deepened. One boat from 
the cruiser started back along the peninsula toward where 
the Peking lay outside the reef, and we thought surely a 
message had been sent to her. Then two other boats put 
out, one toward the middle of Luminan reefs and one in 
toward the place beyond the Japanese trader indicated on 
the chart as the landing-place. 



CHAPTEE IX 

SOME SUEPKISED SPANIARDS. 



While the Charleston's boats were out the/ two joats 



e|t\v 

from shore got to the cruiser. In them were ^Lieutenant 
Garcia Guiterrez of the Spanish Navy, Captain of the Port 
of San Luis d^Apra, and Surgeon Eomero of the Spanish 
Army, the health officer. They came up to the gangway 
which had been rigged out on the starboard side of the 
Charleston and saluted the officer of the deck. They had 
with them Francis Portusac, a native of Guam who had 



SOME SURPRISED SPANIARDS 53 

been educated in the United States and who was natural- 
ised in Chicago in 1888. He is a merchant in Agafia and 
happened to be at the landing at Piti when the Charleston 
came along. He came with the officials to call on his 
" countrymen " on the Charleston and to act as interpreter 
for the SpaniardsT] Through him the officials asked after 
the health of th'e" warship. The officer of the deck had 
sent word to Captai»''G-lass, who now came to the gangway 
and asked the Spaniards and Mr. Portusac to come on 
board the Charleston. They replied that they had merely 

- come out to see about the Charleston's health and the 
nature of her business in San Luis d'Apra. Captain Glass 
repeated his invitation, and in such fashion that they felt 
they had better accept it. So they went up the cruiser's 
ffangway and followed Captain Glass down into his cabin. 

^\rhen they were seateditoWf'Lieutenant Gutierrez, the port 
Captain, set the ball rolling with this soft observation : 

'' You will pardon our not immediately replying to your 
salute, Captain, but we are unaccustomed to receiving 
salutes here, and, are not supplied with proper guns for re- 
turning them. However, we shall be glad to do our best 
to return your salute as soon as possible." 

The port Captain spoke in Spanish. Captain Glass is 
sufficiently familiar with the language to need no interpre- 
tation of the Port Captain^s speech. His reply was short 
and surprising to the Spanish officials. 

''What salute ?" he asked. 

The Spaniards looked at each other with raised brows. 
It was odd that Captain Glass should ask such a question. 

'' The salute you fired," they responded together. '' We 
should like to return it, and shall do so as soon as we can 
get a battery." 

The puzzled look on the face of the American Captain 
faded into a suppressed smile as the meaning of the 
Spanish declaration dawned on him. 

- ^.. '' Make no mistake, gentlemen," he said; ''I fired no 
'salute. We came here on a hostile errand. Our country 

is at war with yours. When I came in here I saw a fort 
and I fired a few small shells at it to unmask it and see if 
there was any response. When there was none I concluded 
it was unoccupied and ceased firing." 
The Spaniards were astounded. This was their first in- 



54 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

timation of the fact that war had been declared between 
the United States and Spain. They had not even known 
that the relations between the two coui} tries were strained 
so as to approach the danger point. For a few moments 
the blunt announcement that war existed, and that this 
was a demonstration against them personally almost over- 
came them. They sat as if stupefied. When at length 
they recovered their composure they asked for more infor- 
mation. The last mail they had had was on April 14, 
bringing news from Manila of date of April 9. It had said 
nothing to warn them that war was imminent or even 
possible. The mail steamer visited them once in two 
months, and the June boat was nearly two weeks overdue. 
There was no explanation for them of what the matter 
was. They simply waited with what patience they could 
command for the boat and the news. 

Captain Glass quickly explained the cause of the delay of 
their mail boat. He told them of the battle in Manila 
Bay and the annihilation of the Spanish fleet by Dewey's 
squadron. It seemed as if it was impossible for the Span- 
iards to comprehend the magnitude of the disaster to their 
cause. They were very unhappy, but Portusac, the Amer- 
ican citizen, had difficulty in keeping his politeness above 
his satisfaction and his amusement.'\'^)^/p ii^ 

Captain Class took the Spanish official^ a little bit out of 
their depression by questioning them about their island. 
It was very fertile, they said, and its appearance bears 
them out. Coif ee, rice, corn and sugar-cane are grown with 
little effort, and cocoanuts, limes, lemons, bananas, pine- 
apples and bread fruit grow in abundance. By the time 
they had got through with the population, which they put 
at between 8,000 and 10,000 for Guam and 26,000 for the 
Mariana group, nearly all Chamorros — natives — Captain 
Glass gave them another jolt, this time one of severe per- 
sonal effect. 

" You understand, of course, gentlemen/' he said, '^ that 
you are my prisoners ? " 

The unhappy Spaniards apparently had not thought of 
it in that light, and they were more than ever disconcerted. 
Captain Glass went on : 

" You have a Governor here ? " 

" Yes, at Agana. Agana is the capital." 



SOME SURPRISED SPANIARDS 55 

" How far is that from here ? " 

"Four miles." 

*' Who is the Governor ? " 

"Don Jose Marina." 

" I will parole you, gentlemen, for this afternoon, and 
I want you to send word to your Governor that I want to 
see him on board the Charleston as early this afternoon as 
possible." 

There was conflicting emotion in the bearing of the 
Spanish officials. Hope that they were to get off after all 
struggled with fear that they would not. This demand 
for the Governor might yet mean their liberation, and they 
assured Captain Glass that they would see to it that his mes- 
sage was delivered. Then there was more talk about the 
island and its resources and its government, and finally 
the Spaniards went away and Mr. Portusac went with them. 

By this time the Charleston's boats had come back to 
the cruiser and the object of their mysterious movements 
was apparent. They had been buoying the dangerous 
places in the reefs. The rain squalls had ceased and there 
was a faint glow of sunshine which brought out sharply 
the cliffs of Orote peninsula and the rugged hills beyond 
the harbour. From the sea side of the reef it is impossible 
to see that Apepas is an island, and so it appears that the 
harbour is a deep bottle-shaped cut into the hills with a tri- 
angular patch stuck on at the south side, extending down 
toward Apra. The ultramarine blue of the water proclaims 
its great depths and Luminan reefs run so close to Point 
Orote as to form a very narrow gateway into the beautiful 
harbour. Beyond old Santa Cruz the hills rise with steep 
slopes almost to mountainous height, and straggling, wind- 
tossed palms range along their ragged crest. Here and 
their their slopes show cultivated fields, and almost in the 
peaks of some of the narrow little sword-cut valleys stand 
groves of palms or lime trees or bananas. 

The Spanish officials were hardly on shore again when 
one of the Charleston's boats put out for the Peking with 
orders for that ship — which was chartered by the Navy 
Department — to go inside and anchor close to the cruiser. 
There was coal in plenty on the Peking, and the Charleston 
needed some of it. By the same boat Captain Glass sent 
a letter to General Anderson informing him of the results of 



56 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

the morning's work and suggesting that the Australia and 
Sydney — which are under army charter, and so not in Cap- 
tain Glass's command in such matters — would be more com- 
fortable inside the reefs. The Australia promptly signalled 
the Sydney to come in and follow the Peking. As we 
steamed along under Fort St. lago and got a close view of it 
we understood something of what they felt on the Charles- 
ton as the cruiser passed in such easy range of the old 
fortification. Attack would have been so simple and easy 
from that bluff, and defence was so impossible. There was 
not a gun on the cruiser that could have been brought to 
bear on the old fort ; not one could be elevated sufficiently 
to throw a shell to the top of the steep basaltic cliffs. 
When the Australia drew near where the Peking had an- 
chored, the lead was set going, but there was no bottom at 
twenty fathoms. Finally Captain Houdlette was as far up 
as he dared to go, and the starboard bower was let go. 
Down she went and out roared the cable. 

'' Forty-five fathoms under water, sir,'' shouted the first 
mate, ^'^and the anchor doesn't hold yet." 

Out went the cable again, and finally when the sixth 
shackle showed that ninety fathoms were gone the anchor 
held. How is that for a deep-water harbour ? The Syd- 
ney had not made out our signals and remained oat- 
side. By the time the Australia was safely at anchor the 
Charleston's jackies were at the Peking's sides at work on 
the coal. It was packed in sacks in the Peking's bunkers, 
hoisted out, and stowed in the biggest sailing launch 
the cruiser had, and then towed by a twelve-oared barge 
over to the warship and hoisted in. It was stiff work and 
distressingly slow. Until it was known definitely whether 
the Governor would surrender or not there would be no 
permission to go ashore, and so we stood about on the 
transports and watched the afternoon sun slide down be- 
hind Orote peninsula over a bewildering path of rose and 
scarlet and crimson and lilac and apple-green and blue- 
black clouds and hide the green hills aud cocoanut palms 
in darkness. It was a case of content yourself and wait 
for the morrow. 

Captain Glass had told the two Spanish officials to send 
him a pilot for the harbour channels, so that his small boats 
could make the landing without difficulty or danger. 



SOME SURPRISED SPANIARDS 57 

With the close of the day this pilot came off from the 
shore in a boat manned by some of the same Spanish naval 
infantry who had rowed out the Port Captain and the sur- 
geon in the morning. The pilot brought a formal commu- 
nication from Governor Marina to Captain Glass, which 
gave the cruiser's commander a curious sensation. 

*^ The military regulations of Spain/'' wrote the Gov- 
ernor, ^'forbid me to set foot upon a foreign ship of war. 
It is therefore impossible that I should call upon you on 
your ship. However, I shall be happy to see you at my 
office in the morning, and hope that we shall be able to 
reach a satisfactory understanding." 

There was a mixture of nerve, plausibility and manana 
in that which made Captain Glass hesitate between laughter 
and wrath. He detained the pilot and by the soldier boat- 
men sent a note to the Governor, saying that he would 
either see the Seiior Don Lieutenant- Colonel himself in 
the morning or would send one of his officers to represent 
him. Then he had his dinner, called away his gig and 
came over to consult with General Anderson about the 
strength of the party to be landed the next morning. It 
apparently had become a question of seeking the Governor 
in his own haunts and abstracting him therefrom by force. 
While a party of us from the Australia, who had dined 
on the cruiser that evening, were sitting in the '^ bull 
ring,'' as they call the space about the after 8-inch rifle, 
and vociferously chanting the determination of us all to 
make the ^'^ Spaniards cuss and damn when we introduced 
them to their Uncle Sam." Captain Glass and General An- 
derson were deciding on the next day's operations. Finally 
it was determined to send forty marines from the Charles- 
ton, and ten from those on the Peking who were going 
out to join ships in Admiral Dewey's fleet, and Companies 
A, Captain Heath, and D, Captain Prescott, of the Second 
Oregon, each eighty-five strong, under the command of 
Lieutenant Myers, the marine officer on the Charleston. 
The soldiers were to have forty rounds of ammunition 
and one day's rations, and to be ready to move at 8:30 
A. M. Lieutenant William Bran nersreuther, navigator of 
the Charleston, was to be in command of the whole force, 
representing Captain Glass. 

There was hilarity on the Charleston in the evening, 



58 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

and the last of the ice helped it along. The boats that 
had been sent out to examine the forts reported them to 
be old ruins, overgrown with grass and shrubbery, and 
apparently in disuse for years. Old San Luis was a bas- 
tion fortress of rock, which had been formidable in its 
day, but that was long ago. Now a big palm tree grows 
fairly in front of one of the gun-ports. Behind Santa 
Cruz the fishermen set their traps. One had been there 
in the morning when the firing began. They had seen 
from the Charleston a man rowing away from behind the 
fort with energy and determination such as win at Henley, 
and had thought he was the sole occupant of the fort. 
But he wasn't : he was a fisherman who had been tending 
his nets. 



CHAPTER X 

GUAM SURRENDEES 

Everybody in the expedition was about early this morn- 
ing. The night was cool, and everybody had a good sleep. 
The climate of G-uam has taken the whole brigade by sur- 
prise. The sun is very hot when it does appear, but most 
of the time it is hidden behind clouds, and there is a con- 
stant fresh land breeze which keeps the temperature down 
to the point where the soldiers are comfortable in their 
heavy woollen shirts. It was blowing very fresh this morn- 
ing, and there was a sea on even in the sheltered harbor 
that made it practically an impossibility for the landing 
party to row ashore in the big boats. By 8:15 ammunition 
and rations had been issued to the Oregon boys, canteens 
had been filled with tea, rifles looked over for the last time 
and Companies A and D were ready for whatever the day 
might bring. They were permitted to leave their blouses 
behind and go in their blue shirts, carrying haversacks 
and canteens. The Charleston's barges and whaleboats 
came down to the Australia, and the Peking's boats fol- 
lowed. Then about 9 o'clock came Lieutenant Myers with 
his forty bullies and their Lee rifles, a fine-looking lot of 



GUAM SURRENDERS 59 

men, well set up and soldierly in appearance. The ten 
marines from the Peking came down and, as far as the 
men were concerned, the party was ready to land. 

As the marines left the Charleston the cruiser's steam 
launch started for shore towing a whale-boat, in which were 
Lieutenant Braunersreuther and Ensign Waldo Evans, 
with a crew of four jackies, all armed, and a fifth man, also 
armed, who speaks Spanish and was to act as interpreter if 
necessary. Lieutenant Braunersreuther went to represent 
Captain Glass at the meeting with the Governor. He 
carried a written communication to the Governor, and his 
orders were to deliver it to Lieutenant-Colonel Marina 
in person and give him half an hour in which to make 
reply. If there was no answer in that time, Lieutenant 
Braunersreuther was to return to his ship for further 
orders. These further orders had been drawn up and 
signed by Captain Glass and Lieutenant Braunersreuther 
had seen them. They directed him to take command of 
the landing party and to proceed with all expedition to 
Agana, there to capture the Governor and all officials, to 
take the soldiers prisoners, and to destroy all fortifica- 
tions ; to capture all Spanish flags and all ammunition 
and war supplies, rifles, and accoutrements : to protect 
life and property as much as possible ; to prevent any 
looting or marauding, and to get back to the ship at 
the earliest possible moment. So he went to meet the Gov- 
ernor fully informed as to what Captain Glass expected 
to accomplish. 

The steam launch towed the whaleboat in to where the 
reef rose too far up in the water to let it go further, and 
then with a white flag of truce fluttering in its bow, the 
whaleboat was rowed on to the landing-place, and the 
launch returned to the cruiser. Directly opposite the 
eastern end of Apepas Island — south, across the little 
shallow channel — a boathouse stands on the beach of the 
main island. It projects out from the edge of the beach 
over the water, and a. float or landing stage rides in front 
of it, fastened to the piles at the outward end of the boat- 
house. Steps lead from the float up to the floor of the 
boathouse. Behind the boathouse and about a hundred 
yards inshore there is a big whitewashed tile-roofed stone 
house, built for the Captain of the port. There he has 



6o OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

his office, and there his men live and make their head- 
quarters. He himself has his home in Agana. Fifty 
yards to the north of this same house is a smaller one, 
similarly built, and whitewashed, which the Governor uses 
as an office when he is at the landing. Beyond this little 
office there are twenty-five or thirty native houses, two or 
three of stone, a few of wood, and the rest of bamboo, all 
with roofs made of bamboo rafters and shingles and 
thatched with the leaves of cocoanut palms. The wooden 
houses are built of heavy boards of red mahogany, rough 
hewn, but sawed on the edges with a whipsaw. The boat- 
house is built of mahogany uprights and girders, with a 
bamboo and cocoanut palm roof and a heavy mahogany 
floor. 

When the steam launch reached the cruiser she was sent 
at once to the Australia, bringing Lieutenant-Commander 
Blocklinger, the executive officer of the Charleston, who 
was to have charge of the organisation of the landing 
force, and see that it got away from the Australia all 
right. Lieutenant Greorge R. Slocum was in command of 
the launch. A 1-pounder was mounted on its bow and the 
crew were armed with Lee rifles. Lieutenant Myers and 
his men were put in the first boats and then the men of 
Company A followed. The launch was to tow the boats 
as far in as she could go and they were to make the rest of 
the way as well as they could, rowing as far as possible 
and then wading. 

The day had dawned clear and bright, with warm sun- 
shine, but by noon the rain squalls were coming again, 
driving across the bay at short intervals and keeping the 
temperature down to a fairly comfortable point. No one 
minded the rain, but the fresh breeze had kicked up a sea 
that made considerable delay. Finally, about half -past 
ten, the launch started with six boats in tow, the first 
third of the landing party. She pulled the boats along 
slowly but steadily, and as they passed between the Peking 
and the Charleston the soldiers and sailors on the trans- 
port and the cruiser gave their comrades in the small boats 
volley after volley of cheers that ricochetted back and 
forth between the two ships like echoes between two clifls 
near together. The launch kept to her course until she 
came alongside the Japanese brigantine, and then she 



GUAM SURRENDERS 6l 

stopped. The brigantine was the Minatogawa of Tokio. 
She had been boarded the night before by Lieutenant Slo- 
cum and a party from the cruiser, and her papers had been 
examined. They were satisfactory. Now we made Japan 
an ally by heaving a line from the first boat aboard the 
trader. It was made fast, and there the first detachment 
lay while the launch went back to the Australia for the 
second detachment. 

The remaining men of the landing party were embarked 
in eight big boats, and the launch had just put off from 
the transport with them in tow when a terrific rain squall 
came along. For fifteen minutes it rained in sheets. The 
floodgates were open, and it seemed as if all the water that 
had been evaporated from the Pacific since we left Hono- 
lulu had been condensed again and was coming down at 
once. In the boats of the first detachment rations had 
been broken out and a hearty luncheon of canned corned 
beef and beans and hardtack had been made. It was fin- 
ished just in time to let the rain wash up the tin camp 
dishes. Everybody in both divisions was soaked to the 
skin. 

Just as the rain slacked up and showed signs of stop- 
ping, those in the first detachment made out a man stand- 
ing up in a small boat off the Minatogawa^s port bow 
waving a white flag. It was a wigwag signal. Lieutenant 
Myers stood up and answered with waves of his white cap. 
The wigwagging proceeded, and slowly we read the dis- 
heartening command: ^^ Keturn to your ship." It was 
Lieutenant Braunersreuther going back to the Charleston. 
He had succeeded. Governor Marina and his staff were 
prisoners in the whaleboat. Lieutenant Braunersreuther 
came close in to our boats and hailed Mr. Myers, who told 
him we would wait for the launch to tow us back. There 
was not a cheer from our boats as the whaleboat went by. 
Some one called out : ^* Have you got any Governors 
aboard?" The answer was a slight wave of the hand by a 
man in the bow of the whaleboat, the motion indicating a 
swarthy man who sat with head bowed down next Lieu- 
tenant Braunersreuther, in the stern sheets, his figure al- 
most hidden in a huge black rain coat. Next this man sat 
another very dejected young man in a brown mackintosh, 
and opposite them sat two others, eyes in the bottom of 



62 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

the boat and heads bowed forward, both in heavy rain 
coats. These four were the only ones in the boat pro- 
tected against the storm. They were the prisoners. The 
captors were as wet as if they had been overboard. It 
was almost noon. 

The whaleboat went on and, just ahead of the Peking, 
came np with the launch and the second detachment of 
the landing party, which had left the Australia just in 
time to get thoroughly soaked by the rain. There was 
more wigwagging, the flag of truce being used as the 
signal flag, and then the long line of boats put about and 
went back to the ship. Presently the launch came out 
again to the Japanese trader, picked up the six boats of 
the first detachment and towed us back to the ship. Then 
she took the Charleston's marines back to the cruiser. 
The ten marines from the Peking rowed back to their 
ship. Ammunition was turned back to the ordnance 
oflicers and unused rations to the commissary. Boats 
were hauled up on their davits or sent back to their ships, 
rifles were cleaned up and dry clothing put on^ and that 
was the end of the first landing party. 

The gallant Duke of York, 

He had ten thousand men ; 
He marched them up a great high hill 

And marched them down again. 

But if there was disappointment in the souls of the men 
who had been detailed for the landing party, there was joy in 
the hearts of Lieutenant Braunersreuther and the men with 
him, for they had succeeded completely. The written mes- 
sage to Governor Marina, which Captain Class sent ashore 
yesterday evening, had been delivered, and it had its effect. 
When the whaleboat with the flag of truce reached the land- 
ing pier at the boathouse, Covernor Marina was there to meet 
it. With him were Captain Duarte of the Spanish Army, 
his secretary, and Lieutenant Gutierrez, Captain of the 
Port, and Dr. Romero, the army surgeon and health officer. 
There was a brief, formal greeting, and Lieutenant Brauners- 
reuther and Ensign Evans were presented to all the party. 
Mr. Braunersreuther went at his business at once. He had 
a written communication from Captain Glass for Governor 
Marina^ which was a formal demand for the immediate 



GUAM SURRENDERS 63 

and nnconditional surrender of all the Spanish possessions 
in the Marina group. It gave the Governor half an hour in 
which to answer. As Lieutenant Braunersreuther handed 
the envelope to Governor Marina, he said, speaking in 
Spanish, and not using his intepreter : 

" I have the honour to present a communication from my 
commandant, who has instructed me that you are to have 
one-half hour in which to make reply. In presenting this 
communication I call your attention to these facts. We 
have, as you see, three large ships inside the harbour, and 
a fourth outside. One of the three ships in the harbour is 
a modern warship of very high power and mounting large 
guns. The others are transports full of soldiers, as is the 
one outside the harbour. We have a large force of soldiers. 
I call your attention to these facts in order that you may 
not make any hasty or ill-considered reply to this com- 
munication from my commandant.'^ 

Lieutenant Braunersreuther paused, and Governor Mar- 
ina bowed and said, ^' Thank you." Lieutenant Brauners- 
reuther pulled out his watch and continued : 

'■ It is now fifteen minutes past 10 o'clock. If within 
thirty minutes I have not received your reply I shall pro- 
ceed according to my further orders. '^ 

Governor Marina bowed again, repeated his thanks, tooK 
the envelope and went inside his office with his staff. The 
five armed jackies from the Charleston were posted on the 
wharf at the entrance to the boathouse. Lieutenant Braun- 
ersreuther and Ensign Evans paced slowly up and down the 
wharf. Lieutenant Braunersreuther with his watch in his 
hand. The long hand of the watch clicked around its dial, 
and for twenty minutes there was no sign of any activity 
inside the Governor's office. Twenty-five minutes and 
still there was no reply. From the window of his office, if 
he chanced to look out, Governor Marina could see the six 
boats of the first detachment of the landing party in tow 
of the launch coming along toward the landing-place. If 
he saw them or not he never said so, but when twenty-nine 
of his thirty minutes had elapsed and Lieutenant Braun- 
ersreuther had almost made up his mind that it was a case 
of take by force, Governor Marina came out of his office 
followed by his staff. In his hand he held a sealed envelope 
addressed to Captain Glass. Lieutenant Braunersreuther 



64 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

stepped forward to meet him. The two men saluted, 
and Grovernor Marina handed the letter to the naval officer, 
saying : 

" It is for your commandant." 

Lieutenant Braunersreuther ripped open the envelope 
with one sweep of his hand and took out the inclosure. 

*^^ It is for your commandant/' repeated Governor Mar- 
ina in protest. 

*^ I represent my commandant here/' replied Lieutenant 
Braunersreuther^ and then he read the letter. It was 
written in Spanish, and this is what it said : 

" SiE : In the absence of any notification from my 
Government concerning the relations of war between the 
United States of America and Spain, and without any 
means of defence, or the possibility of making a defence 
in the face of such a large opposing force, I feel compelled, 
in the interests of humanity and to save life, to make a 
complete surrender of all under my jurisdiction. 

*^ Trusting to your mercy and your justice, 

'^ I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

'^ Jose Maein^a y Vega. 

'^ Captain Hekky Glass, U. S. S. Charleston.'' 

The four Spaniards and two Americans stood in absolute 
silence while Lieutenant Braunersreuther read the note of 
surrender. A second time the navigator of the Charleston 
read the letter, and, when he realised all it meant and 
looked up, it was with difficulty that he could repress a 
smile of satisfaction. The four Spaniards stood with 
bowed heads in utter dejection waiting for what was to 
come next. It came quickly. 

^^ Gentlemen," said Lieutenant Braunersreuther to the 
three staff officers, ^''your Governor has made a complete 
surrender of these islands to the United States. I am sorry 
for your personal discomfort, but you are now my prisoners, 
and under my orders. I am compelled to take you on 
board my ship." 

Governor and staff seemed very much surprised by this 
announcement and protested with much earnestness. 
They were not accustomed to such swift action and were 
not prepared for it. The word maftana plays a large part 



GUAM SURRENDERS 6$ 

in the easy-going Spanish life, but there was no *' to- 
morrow ^' in this business. Lieutenant Braunersreuther had 
been instructed to proceed with all expedition, and he 
was carrying out orders. 

^^We have had no opportunity to say farewell to our 
families/^ protested Governor Marina. "We have no 
clothes except what we wear now. It is very hard to take 
us so unprepared." 

" I am very sorry," repeated Lieutenant Braunersreuther 
" for your personal discomfort, but I cannot help it. I must 
obey my orders. As for your clothing, you may write what 
messages you like to your families or your friends, and 
whatever clothing or supplies they send you in response 
will be taken aboard ship for you, provided they are here 
by 4 o'clock this afternoon. I will even promise that if 
your wives or members of your families come here to bid 
you good-bye they shall be taken on board the ship and 
shall have ample opportunity to see you. More I cannot 
do." 

''It is very hard and very strange," said the Governor 
again. " You come ashore with a flag of truce, and in 
half an hour you tell me I am your prisoner and must go 
aboard your ship. Is it a just use of a flag of truce ?" 

That warmed up Lieutenant Braunersreuther a bit. 

" I came ashore," he said, '' with a flag of truce to 
deliver to you a formal demand for your surrender. You 
replied to that demand by surrendering absolutely and 
without conditions. That ended the truce. You are a 
soldier, and you know as well as I that when one surrenders 
he is a prisoner. You have surrendered to my command- 
ant through me, and until I turn you over to my com- 
mandant you are my prisoner. You must go with me." 

For a second it suggested itself to Lieutenant Brauners- 
reuther that there might be trouble after all. He had only 
five men, but he knew that the shotted guns of the Charles- 
ton were trained on the landing-place, and that at the first 
sign of fight the cruiser would open up. Also he knew 
that the first half of the landing party were almost within 
striking distance, and that they would get to his assistance 
in a very short time if he needed them. But there was no 
need of guns or men. The Governor shrugged his shoul- 
ders in reply to the Lieutenant's declaration, and submitted 
5 



66 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

to the inevitable with the best grace he could muster. He 
turned to go back to his office, and Lieutenant Brauners- 
reuther said : 

'^ You have soldiers here ? " 

'' Yes/' replied the Governor, halted by the questions. 

'^ How many ? '^ 

*' Two companies.'' 

'^ There are officers in command of them ?^' 

a Yes." 

"Where?" 

"In Agana." 

" You will write an order to the officer in command of 
your troops to have them all at this place at 4 o'clock this 
afternoon, with all their arms, ammunition and accoutre- 
ments. I will give you ten minutes in which to write 
such an order." 

"It is impossible," protested the Governor vehemently. 
"They are miles away. They cannot get here at that 
time." 

"It is quite possible," replied Lieutenant Brauners- 
reuther, looking at his watch. "It is not yet 12 o'clock. 
Agana is but four miles away. A messenger can reach there 
within the hour. The soldiers must be here by 4 o'clock 
and you must write the order. You have ten minutes in 
which to do it." 

Again the Governor shrugged his shoulders and turned 
away, and again Lieutenant Braunersreuther stopped him. 

^' You have Spanish flags ?" 

" Yes," replied the unhappy Governor. 

" How many ? " 

" Four." 

"Include in your order to the commanding officer an 
order to bring all the Spanish flags with him." 

The Governor fetched a big sigh and went into his 
office to write the order. He was overwhelmed by the 
calamity which had befallen him so suddenly. He had 
not dreamed that he would be molested even if the United 
States should go to war with Spain. He was so far out 
of the way that he would be absolutely safe. Yet here 
was a great force sent for his capture and he was com- 
pelled to surrender without even the poor satisfaction of 
firing a single shot in resistance. He had no inkling that 



GUAM SURRENDERS 6/ 

this assault on him was merely a side issue. There had 
not been the slightest thing to indicate to him that the 
expedition was bound, in fact, for Manila. As far as he 
knew, or could know, it had been designed simply for 
him, and he was, as he wrote in his note of surrender, 
without the possibility of defence. So he sat down and 
wrote the order to the commandant of his troops to march 
them down from Agana and have them at Piti with all 
their equipment that afternoon by 4 o'clock. When he 
had finished he mournfully held the order out for Lieu- 
tenant Braunersreuther to see. It was satisfactory, and he 
sealed it up. A messenger was found, who was soon gal- 
loping along the road to Agana with the order. Then 
Lieutenant Braunersreuther said : 

" Now you may write to your wife." 

*' How much time shall I have ?" asked the Governor, 
in a quivering voice. 

" All you want,'' replied Lieutenant Braunersreuther. 

The Grovernor turned to his desk and began to write. 
In the meantime his staff officers had been busy over their 
own messages to their families. The Governor wrote stead- 
ily for half an hour, and Lieutenant Braunersreuther waited. 
At last the Governor finished. He had filled three 
large sheets almost the size of foolscap. He gathered them 
up with a. mournful sigh and offered them to his captor. 
Lieutenant Braunersreuther shook his head and waved 
them away. 

" That is a private letter," he said, " and I have nothing 
to do with it." 

The Governor was completely overcome by this simple 
politeness. He put his head down in his crossed arms on 
the desk in front of him and cried like a child. When at 
length he regained control of himself the letter was sealed 
up and a messenger found to deliver it to the Senora 
Marina in Agana. By this time the other officers had suc- 
ceeded in sending their own messages, and it was time to 
get into the whaleboat and put out for the Charleston. 
The Governor and his staff were all in uniform, but none 
wore side arms. They went sorrowfully down the wharf 
to the boathonse and stepped into the Charleston's boats. 
The jackies who had been standing at the shore entrance 
to the boathouse had returned to their places in the boat. 



68 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

and now they set out to pull back to their ship. Just 
after they left the landing-place the squall broke. But 
the rain had no discouragement then for the Charleston's 
men. The prisoners were moody and silent throughout the 
trip oat to the cruiser, bat not a man in the boat blamed 
them. Lieutenant Braunersreuther said afterward that he 
was especially glad that there had been no cheering from 
the boats of the landing party when his boat passed by. 

On the Charleston the prisoners were taken at once to 
Captain Glass's cabin, where there was a general talk. The 
Governor's letter of surrender was turned over by Liea tenant 
Braunersreuther to Captain Glass, who read it and then 
heard a brief verbal report from the Lieutenant of what 
had occurred. After that Captain Glass made temporary 
provision for his prisoners in his own cabin. 

While this had been going on Captain Pillsbury of the 
Sydney had come in in a small boat for a conference with 
General Anderson and Captain Glass. He reported that 
he had been unable to make out the Australia's signals yes- 
terday, and so had remained outside the reefs over night. 
'Now he was ordered to come in and take position near the 
Charleston. Captain Glass had no room on the cruiser for 
his prisoners, and he aske^d permission from General Ander- 
son to put them on the Sydney. There was plenty of room 
on the transport, and, as General Anderson was willing, it 
was decided to make her the prison ship. So Captain 
Pillsbury took Mr. Hallett, the Australia's mate, with 
him for a pilot, and came in with the Sydney and anchored 
beween the Peking and the Charleston, and a little astern of 
them. The four officers were transferred to her from the 
Charleston at once. There were comfortable staterooms 
for them, and they were assigned to quarters without delay. 
Governor Marina drew a room with Lieutenant Gutierrez, 
the port Captain, and Dr. Eomero and Captain Duarte took 
another stateroom. Armed guards are stationed outside 
their doors, but considerable freedom is, nevertheless, 
allowed the jDrisoners. They will mess in the saloon at a 
table by themselves, and will have plenty of opportunity 
to talk together and to get such exercise as can be had on 
shipboard and to read and smoke as much as they like. 



OUR FLAG SALUTES 69 



CHAPTER XI 

OUR FLAG SALUTES 

When this had been arranged Captain Glass and Lieu- 
tenant-Commander Blocklingler took a big flag and, in the 
Charleston's barge, went over to old Fort Santa Cruz. It 
was pretty ticklish business getting to the fort because of 
the coral reefs which run about in all sorts of shapes 
throughout the upper part of the bay. There is a little 
narrow channel which leads to the rear of the fort, how- 
ever, and the boat finally found this and made a landing. 
Captain Glass found a most dilapidated old apology for 
a fort, the thought of shelling which made him laugh. 
Such as it was the fort occupied nearly the entire space of 
the little island which had been built upon the reef. It 
was built in the form of a rectangle, about sixty feet east 
and west by forty feet north and south. The four corners 
were braced by heavy stone buttresses. The entrance 
was in the centre of the south wall. The walls were of 
heavy masonry, of the same basaltic rock as the cliffs along 
Orote peninsula, but long ago the plaster had crumbled 
between the stones and the huge blocks themselves had 
begun to disintegrate under the stress of the constant 
storms that sweep over them. Grass, reeds, weeds and 
shrubbery had overgrown the whole place. Ruin and 
desolation held the island, — not Fort Santa Cruz. Along 
the south wall, clear across the southern front, except at 
the entrance at the centre there had been the quarters of 
the men. The little cell-like rooms had been built of 
stone, which had fallen into little heaps almost before the 
oldest man in this expedition learned to walk. 

The door in the wall against which these cells had stood 
opened directly against the heavy south side of what 
seemed to be a solid block of masonry, which rose about 
ten feet from this south wall to a height of perhaps ten 
feet. 

Directly opposite this door, at the top of the pile of 
masonry, stood the coat of arms of Spain. Now it is moss- 



70 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

grown and worn away. The big gravestone-like slab on 
which the arms were carved has faded and crumbled until 
now it is impossible to decipher in detail what was carved 
on it originally, but there remain the outlines of the 
Spanish arms^, and at the bottom some lettering. The 
name of the King who reigned when the fort was built 
probably stood there once, but now there is only a blur, at 
the end of which is decipherable *' Afio 1801." That was 
before Trafalgar, when there were a glory and a main that 
were Spain^s. Almost a century this old fort has looked 
out over the reefs beyond Orote peninsula, and there was 
a time no doubt when it would have met a ship of the line 
with a royal welcome, but now the coral on which it was 
built is coming to its protection, and in a few more years 
it will be impregnable because no hostile hand can reach it. 
To the left as one enters this door that faces the old 
coat of arms rises the ramp that leads to the terreplein. 
It is perhaps ten feet wide with steps at the southern side 
built of stone. To the right, under an arched doorway, is 
the long vacant magazine, foul and ill-smelling now from 
its years with no ventilation. The terreplein seems to be 
solid. The battlemented parapet rises around it about 
four feet in some places, but for the most part the parapet 
has all fallen down. Originally there were probably four 
embrasures on the north side and perhaps as many more 
on the south, with half that number east and west. G-rass 
and bushes grow thickly on the terreplein. About the 
parapet Captain Glass found indications where four of the 
shells from his 3-pounders had struck, but the old 
fort was little the worse for its bombardment. The terre- 
plein presented a curious problem. It is hard to believe 
it is solid, there is so little room on the speck of an island 
occupied by the fort ; but if it is supported by arches 
there is no indication now to be found of any door leading 
to the chambers beneath it. Yet it seems more than 
probable that there are such chambers. Who knows now 
what dungeons are beneath that terreplein that was built 
before Navarino was fought, and was in the first flush of 
its youth when fate upset Napoleon at AVaterloo ? Who 
knows what hoards of Spanish doubloons and pieces of 
eight may not be bursting out of their rotting chests be- 
neath those grass-covered arches ? One 8-inch shell from 



OUR FLAG SALUTES 71 

the Charleston would have laid bare the whole mystery, 
but Captain G-lass is a matter-of-fact man and the 8-inch 
shell is still in the magazine of the Charleston. 

At the southeast corner of the terreplein there rises the, 
wreck of an old flagstaff. Beside it grows a tree almost as 
tall as the staff. On that staff the flag Captain G-lass had 
taken from the Charleston was hoisted. Lieutenant Brau- 
nersreuther, who had been left in command on the cruiser 
while the Captain and executive officer were away, had 
wigwagged over to the Australia and the Peking to keep 
watch with him for the first appearance of Old Glory above 
the ruined battlements of Santa Cruz. The bands on the 
two troopships were ready, and the crews were at the salut- 
ing guns on the crusier. The clouds had broken away 
and the harbour and its hills stood out clear and sharp in 
the early afternoon sun. The old grey fort, in its setting 
of green grass and shrubbery, marked the foreground. 
Over this grey-green spot in the blue water rose the radi- 
ant glory of the Stars and Stripes. As the first glint of 
colour above the battered parapet caught the eye of Lieuten- 
ant Braunersreuther he gave the order to salute the United 
States flag. A thundering roar from the forward 6- 
pounder gun of the Charleston's starboard battery was the 
first response. Instantly the port gun answered. The 
echoes beat back from the cocoanut covered cliffs of Orote 
peninsula and flung themselves against the hills on the 
mainland of the island. Back they came, diminished in 
force but increased in number, and caught the deep boom- 
ing of the guns as the Charleston continued the salute. 
Soon all the harbour was filled with the noise, and occasion- 
ally, as it died down a bit, came the strains of the '^ Star 
Spangled Banner " from the two transports, and the ring 
of eager cheers from the thousands of soldiers and sailors 
who watched the beautiful flag rise to its place at the top 
of the staff and float out over the old fort. The island of 
Guam was formally in possession of the United States. 
Six thousand miles to the westward the starry banner had 
been pushed at one stride. When it rises over Manila and 
the Philippines — never to be hauled down, as this expedi- 
tion hopes — the sun will never set on '^ the land of the 
free and the home of the brave.'' 

Leaving the old flag floating gloriously out on the after- 



T2 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

noon breeze, Captain Glass returned to the Charleston. He 
reached his ship at about 3 o'clock, and at once Lieutenant 
Braunersreuther started with Lieutenant Myers and fort}'- 
marines to receive the surrender of the Spanish garrison 
of Guam. The men embarked in four boats, which were 
towed by the steam launch, under command of Lieutenant 
Slocum. Ensign Evans and Dr. Earenholt accompanied 
Lieutenant Braunersreuther. The tide was nearly at ebb 
slack, and it was impossible for the launch to get over the 
reef that runs along the inside edge of the harbour close to 
Apepas Island and the main island. The boats were cast 
loose from the launch and w^ent as far in as they could 
with oars. Then the men got out and waded, pushing the 
boats along. It was a ticklish position for the men if the 
Spanish soldiers should conclude at the last to make a stand 
for it. Lieutenant Braunersreuther took his men as far 
in toward Apepas as he could. He knew that the Charles- 
ton's guns were shotted and trained on the landing place, 
and he gave them as much room as he could. They were 
ready to open up at the first sign of resistance from shore, 
but they never got the signal to fire. Lieutenant Braun- 
ersreuther kept his men as well together as possible and or- 
dered them to be ready to shoot at the least indication of 
trouble, and to shoot low and to kill. 

Straight into the landing place the four boats went, and 
there were the Spaniards, sure enough, waiting for them 
in the boathouse. The Spaniards had been on time, but 
the Americans were late. The difiiculty of getting over 
the reefs had delayed them, and it was well past 4 o'clock 
when Lieutenant Braunersreuther climbed up the steps into 
the boathouse and returned the salute of Lieutenant Ramos 
of the Spanish naval infantry, in command of the surrender- 
ing garrison of Guam. Behind Lieutenant Braunersreuther 
came Ensign Evans and Dr. Earenholt. There were two 
companies of the soldiers, one of Spanish regulars and one 
of natives — Chamorros. They were drawn up in line in 
the boathouse, facing in, the Spaniards on the south side 
and the Chamorros on the north. Lieutenant Brauners- 
reuther spoke to Lieutenant Ramos, who gravely presented 
Lieutenant Berruezo of the Spanish naval infantry segundo 
cabo of the garrison of Guam. Lieutenant Berruezo 
saluted, and Lieutenant Braunersreuther announced that 



OUR FLAG SALUTES 73 

he had come, representing Captain Glass, to receive their 
surrender, as ordered by Governor Marina. The soldiers 
looked on in wonder at the proceeding, but the Ohamorros 
were not unhappy, and their faces showed it. 

While this talk had been going on Lieutenant Myers and 
his forty marines had filed quietly through the boathouse 
and formed in line on the wharf across the entrance, facing 
the water front, and looking down through the boathouse. 
It will be understood that there are neither sides nor ends 
to this boathouse, simply a floor and a thatched roof sup- 
ported by four uprights. The left end of the line of ma- 
rines moved forward left oblique, forming an obtuse angle 
in the line and covering the rear and left flank of the boat- 
house as you face the water. There were four armed 
bluejackets in each boat, sent to man the oars and act as 
boatkeepers. Half of these men were left in the boats, 
the others were formed at the right of the marines, at an 
obtuse angle to the line, covering the right flank of the 
boathouse. Then the Spaniards were in a trap, and if at 
the last they should try to fight, they would be practically 
surrounded and have no chance. 

Then the disarming began. Lieutenant Braunersreuther 
stood well in the boathouse toward the centre, in the 
open space between the two lines of Spanish and Chamorro 
soldiers. Ensign Evans stood near the front of the boat- 
house with Dr. Farenholt. Two bluejackets stood near 
Ensign Evans to receive the arms. Lieutenant Brauners- 
reuther told Lieutenant Ramos to command his men to de- 
liver their guns to Ensign Evans. The Spaniards were in 
light marching order, having only their guns, cartridge 
boxes and bayonets and haversacks with them. Their 
extra ammunition was in two big boxes behind their line as 
they stood in the boathouse. Lieutenant Ramos gave the 
order as Lieutenant Braunersreuther directed. In response 
the man at the left of the line, nearest Ensign Evans, 
stepped forward and saluted ; then he threw open the 
breech block of his Mauser rifle and showed Ensign Evans 
that it was not loaded. He passed the gun to Mr. Evans 
with the breech block open. Ensign Evans closed the 
breech block and handed the gun to one of the blue- 
jackets, who passed it along to another, who stowed it in 
one of the Charleston's boats. Then the Spaniard took 



74 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

off his belt, with cartridge box and bayonet, and his haver- 
sack, and handed them to Ensign Evans, who turned them 
over to the bluejacket as he had the gun, and they were 
stowed in the boat. The disarmed Spaniard saluted and 
returned to his place in line. The next man stepped for- 
ward and the performance was repeated. One by one the 
fifty-four Spanish regulars gave up their arms and accou- 
trements. One by one the guns were examined and stowed 
away in the boat with the cartridge belts, bayonets and 
haversacks. The rifles were all Mausers of ^96 make and 
in good condition. Each soldier carried six boxes of 
cartridges, three clips in a box and five shells in a clip, 
ninety rounds in all. 

When the regulars had been disarmed the Chamorros 
were jDut through the same drill. There were fifty-four 
of them also, a full company, according to the Spanish 
regulations. They were armed with Eemington breech- 
loading rifles, 45-90 single shots, and carried their car- 
tridges loose in boxes on their belts, ^ot a gun of them 
all was found loaded, but they had a great reserve of shells 
piled loose in a box, about two bushels of them, in addition 
to those in the boxes on their belts. 

The soldiers of both companies disarmed. Lieutenant 
Braunersreuther asked the two Spanish Lieutenants to step 
out of the boathouse with him. He stopped near the right 
of the marine line, and, facing the two Spanish officers, 
said : 

" Gentlemen, it is my unpleasant duty to be obliged to 
disarm you also. I am compelled to ask for your swords 
and revolvers." 

As he spoke the marines came to ''^ present arms^^ in 
salute. The Spanish officers bowed and in turn presented 
their swords to Lieutenant Braunersreuther, with their 
belts and revolvers. 

Up to that time it apparently had not occurred to them 
that they would be taken away from G-uam. It certainly 
had not dawned upon the soldiers that such was the pos- 
sibility. The first intimation the men got of it was when, 
after all the disarming. Lieutenant Braunersreuther said 
to Lieutenant Ramos : 

^' ISTow, tell your men that they may say good-bye to the 
native soldiers."" 



OUR FLAG SALUTES 75 

It was not necessary for Lieutenant Eamos to repeat the 
order. Regulars and Chamorros alike had understood Lieu- 
tenant Braunersreuther. There were grins and smiles on 
the faces of the natives, for it told them that they were to 
be set free, but there were outcry and protest from the Span- 
iards. It was the scene of the morning over again, but in 
less dignified and more vehement measure. The Span- 
iards embraced their native comrades with wailing and 
tears, and there were many doleful adieus. The Span- 
iards protested that they had no clothing, they were not 
prepared to go away, and they had had no time for fare- 
wells to friends or families. To all Lieutenant Braunersreu- 
ther replied that they could send what messages they liked 
by the Chamorros and that whatever responses in cloth- 
ing or outfit the messages brought, would be put aboard 
the ship for the men. Then there was another tearful 
embracing of the Chamorros, who were so happy that even 
under such lugubrious circumstances they could hardly re- 
press their smiles, and then Lieutenant Braunersreuther 
said it was time to get into the boats. He told the Chamor- 
ros that he would parole them, and they went away ready 
to cheer, but hardly daring to try it. As soon as they re- 
alized that they were free from the Spanish yoke they be- 
gan ripping the Spanish brass off their uniforms. But- 
tons and collar marks they threw away by the handful, 
and the bluejackets of the Charleston gathered them up as 
curios. It almost made the marines break ranks to see the 
jackies getting all the souvenirs, while they could get 
none. 

The boat containing the captured arms had been towed 
out over the reef and anchored there as soon as all the 
rifles and ammunition had been stowed in it. Now a big 
flat-bottomed barge that was anchored Just south of the 
boathouse was brought up without any great search for its 
owner. The fifty-four Spanish soldiers were put in it, and 
it was put in place in the line of small boats. Then the two 
officers were put in Lieutenant Braunersreuther's boat and 
the marines re-embarked. In obedience to the Governor's 
order Lieutenant Ramos had brought four Spanish flags, all 
the official flags in Guam. These were stowed in Lieu- 
tenant Braunersreuther's boat and the party started out for 
the Charleston, the last of the Chamorros cheering them as 



76 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

they pulled out. The tide had begun to come in while 
the disarming was going on, and there was now water 
enough over the reefs for rowing. Outside the reefs the 
launch picked them up again and towed them down to the 
Charleston, first the captured ammunition, then Lieutenant 
Braunersreuther's boat, then the soldier prisoners and then 
the marines. In response to the messages the Governor 
and his staff sent in the morning to their families, hand- 
bags had been brought to the pier for the Governor and 
some of the others, with word that the heavier baggage 
would be down in the morning. This light luggage was 
taken along as Lieutenant Braunersreuther had promised. 

The tow ran alongside the Charleston, and Lieutenant 
Braunersreuther went aboard with Lieutenants Eamos and 
Berruezo to make reports. After Captain Glass had had 
some talk with them they were taken over to the Sydney, 
where the other officers had preceded them. The soldiers 
were taken, too. Preparation had been made for them on 
the transport and supper was served at once. They were 
sent down below in the steerage and armed guards stationed 
over them. The two Lieutenants got a stateroom near 
their suj^eriors. The captured flags were taken in charge 
by Captain Glass, who found a place for them in his cabin. 
The rifles and ammunition were also taken on the Charles- 
ton and the gunners stowed them away. The boats were 
hoisted in, the steam launch went back to towing the coal 
barge to and from the Peking, a business which had been 
interrupted sadly by the events of the day, and the cap- 
ture of Guam was complete. 

At sundown this evening Captain Glass sent the dinghy 
to Fort Santa Cruz to take down the flag. He hoisted it 
merely for the purpose of saluting it, and has no intention 
of leaving one here. 



TO JAR A FIXED STAR 77 



CHAPTER XII 

TO JAE A FIXED STAR. 

With the surrender of Governor Marina and the hoisting 
of the Stars and Stripes came the removal of the restriction 
to ship which had kept everybody from going ashore be- 
fore except the fortunate few who had been concerned in 
bringing about and receiving the surrender. Just opposite 
where the Charleston lies, or perhaps a little to the south- 
ward, the tall cliff fronting the water gives way to a sandy- 
beached point that juts out a short distance from Orote 
Peninsula and forms the base for a coral reef that runs 
across the bay to Santa Cruz. A cocoanut grove covers most 
of this point, and under the shade of the broad leaves of 
the cocoanut palms the forty or fifty houses and the old 
stone church and schoolhouse of the Chamorro village of 
Soumaye, or Suma, are sheltered. The first boat from the 
Australia was half Avay to the Charleston when the salute 
to Old Grlory was fired by the cruiser. It held straight on 
to Point Soumaye and brought up dolefully against the 
coral reef 800 yards from shore. A dozen Chamorros ran 
along the beach as the boat came in, and one young fellow 
waded out on the reef. He wore a soft, tough hat that 
seemed to be made of straw. Its broadbrim flapped about 
his face as he came swiftly out along the reef to the 
stranded boat. He had on a thin blue cotton shirt and 
trousers that went to the knee. His feet apparently were 
bare, and it was amazing to see him skip about over the 
sharp coral. As he came he tucked his flapping hat under 
his arm for an instant while he stripped off the incumber- 
ing shirt, which he rolled up in a little knot and stuck on 
his head under the hat. Evidently he was preparing for 
business of some sort. He kept motioning with one hand 
toward where he seemed to think there was water enough 
for the ship^'s boat. Occasionally he made some ejacula- 
tion in his native tongue. He was a short, slight fellow, 
rather broad of shoulder, and with a depth of chest and 



78 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

length of arm, the best things about him physically. His 
face was broad and flat, with round brown eyes, short, 
straight, black hair, and a feeble little black moustache. 
He came straight out to the boat and said ^' Good morn- 
ing " in English, with a grin that showed a double row of 
betel-stained teeth. Everybody in the boat replied ''■ Good 
morning,'"' too much astonished at his use of English to 
say more at first. Then some one said : 

" Where is the channel ?" 

The young Chamorro grinned and replied. '^ Here. 
Plenty water." 

^' And that,'' said Lieutenant- Colonel Yoran, '^ would jar 
a fixed star.'' 

The Chamorro did his best to take the boat in, but it 
was too heavy and had too many passengers. He waded 
along and pulled it behind him for several yards, but it 
drew too much water, and he could not manage it in the 
tortuous little channel between the coral bunches. At 
last he gave it up and begun to pull up pieces of the 
brilliant coloured coral to show us. It was much more 
beautiful than the coral at Honolulu, and some of it was 
in delicate shades of violet and lilac. But it had an all- 
pervading and powerful odour which was most disagreeable, 
a soft, penetrating odour, that seemed not unpleasant at 
first, but became almost nauseating in a very short time. 
And the longer the coral was out of water the stronger 
the odour became. While he was wading about after coral 
the reason for his agility over the sharp rocks was dis- 
closed. On his feet he wore broad leather pads, cut like 
the sole of a boot, and fastened about the ankles with a 
thong which ran down across the top of the foot, between 
the great and second toes, and was fastened there to the 
pad again. 

The natives on the beach had been watching the work 
of this young fellow closely, and, when they saw that he 
could not get the boat in they began to come out in their 
small, flat-bottomed, bargelike affairs. The first boat that 
came along was manned by two men, and the young fellow 
who had waded out first joined them immediately. The 
two Chamorros hopped out into the watei and said to the 
men in the ship's boat : 

'^ Get in." 



TO JAR A FIXED STAR 79 

'' How many ? " asked some one. 

'' Three/' was the answer. 

So three got in, and oif for shore the boat started, the 
three Chamorros wading alongside and pushing it. The 
young fellow with his shirt under his hat acted as guide. 
His brown skin gleamed like copper in the sunshine, and 
the lithe muscles rippled under it as he bent to his work 
on the boat. As he walked along he talked, and it was 
not very difficult to understand his English. 

" Americano/' he said — ^'^half Ohamorro, half Amer- 
icano. My fader Americano, my moder Chamorro. 
Then he laughed. ^' Good Americano,'' he went on. 
"One day good Espanol, next day good Americano." 
He laughed again, and the men in the boat laughed, too. 

" Good Americano to-day ? " they asked. 

" Good Americano to-day," the boy replied, with an- 
other laugh. " One day big Americano ship come, go 
boom ! boom ! " His eyes flashed and he struck his hands 
together hard in excitement. " Make Ohamorro much 
fright. Ever' man run, goddam. ISTot come back bimeby. 
Nex' day, maybe, come back. Boom ! boom ! big ship 
make boom ! boom ! Ever' man run, goddam ; make boy 
run ; child, woman, ever' man run." He laughed again 
heartily at the recollection of the scare the little bombard- 
ment of Santa Cruz had given his village. " Nex' day 
come back/' he went on ; " big ship make much boom ! 
boom ! All run quick, cocoanut trees, banana, maybe 
sug' cane. ISTot come back bimeby. No got scare me. 
Goddam no. What hell got scare for ? Big boom ! boom ! 
No got hurt. 

'^ My fader ver' good man, Americano. Got big house. 
I show yo.u. He ver' good man. That my fader walk by 
house there. You see ? Good man, ver' good man." 

He pointed at a little bent old Chamorro who was walk- 
ing along the beach toward the landing place. The old 
man was dressed as the young man had been before he 
took off his shirt, and there was no evidence of his great 
prosperity in his appearance. But one could not doubt 
the filial love that asserted him to be a " ver' good man " 

Half the village seemed to be waiting at the beach for 
the boat, but there were no women. Men, some of them 
fairly well dressed, boys and swarms of children. The 



80 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

children usually wore a single coat-like garment of thin 
cotton, which more often was unbuttoned than not. The 
landing place was like the boathouse at Piti, where the 
Governor and his soldiers surrendered, but not so preten- 
tious. It stood on small piles at the edge of the beach and 
had a series of mahogany steps leading down to the water. 
Its roof was of thatched bamboo. The floor was of a dark 
hard wood that did not look like mahogany, but the 
natives did not know the English name of it. They called 
it a name which they pronounced ^' iffet.^" 

At the other end of the street of which the boathouse 
stands at one end is an old stone church, the bare, trampled 
clay for its floor and wooden bars for its window. It faces 
to the east. It is just a barn-like structure, about forty feet 
long by twenty wide. The altar is decorated lavishly with 
pictures and tinsel and little shells from the sea, and in front 
of the little gate in the centre of the chancel rail, or what 
passes for it, hangs a big inverted glass bowl, suspended 
from cords that run across the building from side to side, 
about eight feet from the floor. In this big bowl there is 
a small glass cup, half filled with water. Cocoanut oil 
floats on the water, brimming the cup, and at its edge a 
little glass saucer, with a small hole in the middle, keeps 
upright the small wick. This is the light that has been 
burning before that altar since before the old ^^ver' good 
Americano," who has been there sixty-three years, can re- 
member. At the left of the altar there is a door leading 
into a tiny box of a room for the padre. The padre is 
Jose Cavaurtas, a full blooded Spaniard, very old, who 
lives in Agat, down across the peninsula, and comes once 
in a while to visit his children in Soumaye. 

Beside the old church, and like it cleanly white- 
washed, stands the Escuela Fullica, but there is no mas- 
ter now and the children are not bothered. They can 
roam the banana groves without fear. By and by the 
padre will come to Soumaye to stay, and then there will 
be school, and the children in Agat will be happy. Church 
and school both have thatched roofs, and the solidly 
closed door and windows of the schoolhouse do not look as 
if they had been opened in years. 

The village is laid off in squares, with wide, regular 
streets. Most of the houses are of wood, two are of stone, 



> TO JAR A FIXED STAR 8 1 

and a few are bamboo. All the living quarters r.re well 
np from tiie ground, and the wooden houses have open 
spaces of from three to five feet under their floors. Only 
the stone houses are of two stories. Back of each house 
and at the same level is a shack-like kitchen. Four posts 
serve to hold up the floor and the lean-to thatch. In one 
corner a forge-like stove is built, where the women make a 
fire of wood over which they cook. A running board set 
on posts the same level as the floors leads from house to 
kitchen. Any man gets fresh water by digging a little 
hole in his backyard. Usually there are four houses in a 
block ; sometimes there are more. Each block is likely 
to find in one of the backyards an elaborate oven. It is 
built up solidly of masonry, and is shaped like a beehive. 
Over it is the protecting thatch of cocoanut leaves, tough, 
strong and impervious to water. In a corner of every 
house or yard stands an upright stone hollowed out to 
make a big mortar. There the women grind the corn or 
rice. They have big, heavy sticks like a paver^s rammer, 
and maul the corn until it is pounded into a fine flour. 
In two of the backyards of Soumaye there are big copper 
stills where the Chamorro owners manufacture a species 
of aguardiente which is a concentration of liquified live 
wire and all the fires in hell. It is so volatile that its 
evaporation would almost make ice, but it will produce a 
jag that will not evaporate or be reasonable. However, 
the simple pastoral natives swallow it by the half bottle, 
nor yet defile their throats with water. 

To the left of the boathouse, as you start down — or up 
— the main street of Soumaye, stands a big stone house. 
Just beyond it the first cross street runs at right angles to 
the street of the church and boathouse. Across this 
narrow — in comparison with the others — street stands the 
other pretentious stone house of the village. These two 
houses are owned, the first by Vincente Diaz, and the 
second by Nicolas Diaz, his brother. Vincente Diaz adds 
to his autograph ^^Ist policeman,"' and Nicolas writes 
" 2d policeman." They have just reversed places. A few 
months ago Nicolas was first and Vincente second. In a 
few months more they will shift again. There has to be 
an evening-up of honours in this Diaz family. In spite of 
their names the Diaz brothers say they are full-blood 



82 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Chamorros, and their families have lived at Soumaye as 
long as they know — they never heard of any other place 
or home. These Diazes speak the best English in the 
village, and they explained how it is that every able-bodied 
man in Soumaye can understand and make himself under- 
stood in that tongue. They do it with the single word 
'^ whaler.'^ Then they go on to say that for many years 
it has been the custom of whalers to come to Guam to get 
oarsmen. Along the beach in front of Soumaye there are 
a score or more of fine whaleboats. Each boat is pulled 
well up out of the water and stands under a little house of 
its own, the peaked roof of which is the inevitable thatch 
of cocoanut palm leaf. The Soumaye Chamorros are 
expert men with the oars, and very valuable in the crews 
of whalers. They are small but tough, and do not wear 
out, and they work for small wages. On the whalers they 
learn to speak English more or less well. The Diaz brothers 
began that way and have kept it up by practice with the 
whalers, who have come to Guam since they became suffi- 
ciently far advanced in property to quit such service. Now 
they trade with whalers and sell them pineapples, bananas, 
cocoanuts, limes, and such things. 

The house of Vincente Diaz has a big door through the 
thick stone wall at the ground. There is no floor, but 
the ground has been packed hard by much tramping. 
Above the ground about seven feet is the first floor. The 
space below the floor is divided by two partitions into a 
room at each end and a sort of central hall which leads 
to a door in the back wall, where a flight of rude steps 
made of logs roughly hewn leads to the living quarters on 
the floor above. These end rooms on the ground are used 
as storerooms and filled with piles of the various products 
of the fertile land of Guam. The floor of the living rooms 
is made of broad, rough-hewn boards of red mahogany. 
There is a large room in the middle, about twenty-one feet 
long by sixteen wide. At each end is a small living room, 
sixteen feet across the house by eight feet. At the east end 
a gallery is built out beyond the end of the house. There is 
a window in this gallery, and there the women sit to gossip 
and do their '^samplers." The furniture of the house is 
rough mahogany, except a few cheap chairs with cane seats. 
The tables are heavily built of the heavy wood, and there 



TO JAR A FIXED STAR 83 

are several heavy benches used for seats, with rough open- 
work backs, the spindles of which are rudely worked down 
apparently with some sort of an axe or hatchet. The bed- 
steads are of the same rough mahogany, corded like those 
our great grandfathers had, and at their heads, in Vin- 
cente Diaz's house, stand little shrines, with cocoanut oil 
lamps, which never go out — at least never in theory, for 
these people are good Catholics, and have been almost ever 
since the great Magellan discovered these islands, before 
the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. 

To the house of Vincente Diaz the first boatload from 
the Australia were invited with great cordiality as soon as 
their feet touched land. The children and the men of the 
village gathered about the Diaz door and posed for their 
photographs with grave good nature. The women looked 
out of the window of their gallery and got themselves in- 
cluded in the group. Then everybody went upstairs and 
was presented to Mrs. Diaz and her mother and her 
sister. 

As soon as that was over the women promptly disappeared, 
and thereafter were seen no more. Vincente Diaz boasts 
of his pure Ohamorro blood, but his children cannot, for 
his wife has red hair and light eyes. Do you remember 
that flaming-headed Namgay Dooley, who gave the heathen 
King in India such a peck of trouble until he was made 
policeman ? Far be it from me to suggest that that is 
why Vincente Diaz is first policeman of the district of 
Soumaye but there is an analogy. The women were rather 
good-looking. They are entirely different from the 
Hawaiian women, smaller, more compactly built, similarly 
round of face, but not so thick-lipped. They are appar- 
ently of Malay descent, these Ohamorros. Their colour is a 
clear red copper, with occasionally a yellowish Mongolian 
tinge. The women are broad-faced, with well marked 
cheek bones, but usually of good features and nearly always 
with fine eyes. Their hair is long, straight and black, 
and rather inclined to be coarse. Their hands are small 
and well shaped, but their feet, from never wearing shoes, 
are large, broad and thick. The men are mostly like the 
women in feature, except that they are not so full faced, 
and some of them have a decided Spanish cast. They 
have fine, straight noses and sharp chins. Some of the 



84 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

men are handsome, and some of the women, particularly 
the younger ones, are beautiful. 

When the women of Vincente Diaz's household had 
disappeared the master of the house set himself about the 
entertainment of his guests. He and his brother were 
dressed in cotton jackets and trousers, and wore very 
good-looking, sharp-pointed yellow shoes. Their jackets 
were cut close about the neck and buttoned straight' up to 
the throat like a uniform coat. One was striped with 
blue and red and white, and the other in blue and white, 
like tennis players. All the men wore hats like that of 
the boy who piloted in the boat. They are made of the 
ubiquitous cocoanut palm leaf, and are very tough, better 
than any Panama hat, even better than the famous and 
extremely expensive Kona hat of Hawaii. They can be 
rolled up and jumped on, poked in any shape, twisted, 
pulled, hauled, soaked, abused outrageously, without com- 
plaint and seemingly without damage. The whole crowd 
from the street, men, boys, and children had followed the 
Americanos into the Diaz parlor and now stood about, 
leaning against the wall and occasionally putting a word 
in the conversation, when their stock of English happened 
to enable them to do so. 

First of all there was talk. The Diaz brothers explained 
their official position and produced the tax rolls of the village. 
Tlie rolls showed 239 inhabitants of Soumaye last year, 
seven births (that was apparently inaccurate), and six 
deaths. There are sixty-four families, thirty-four un- 
married men and thirty-six unmarried women. The tax 
is seventy-five cents a head every six months, with a further 
tax for every birth (that may account for the apparent 
inaccurancy of the list), every death, every wedding, in fact 
almost every act. There are taxes on all sorts of property 
and products. Everything is taxed, and it makes the 
poor Chamorro hustle to get money enough to pay. If it 
were not for the occasional ship to which he sells bananas, 
cocoanuts, and pineapples he would be likely to fall short. 
He lives easily enough. Nature looks out for that. But 
nature never had any conception of Spanish taxes. When 
the tax list had been exhibited the resources and condition 
of the island were exploited. The Chamorros gave much 
the same account that the Spaniards had given Captain 



THE *'NEW bully" AT SUMA 85 

Glass. Coffee growing is beginning and will pay. The 
great rainfall, evenly distributed, is what coffee needs most. 
There are no violent winds to strip the bushes, and there 
are plenty of sheltered hillsides on which to plant them. 
The soil is of a clayey nature, with a rich subsoil of red 
clay. On the lowlands rice grows plentifully. Sugar 
cane is far richer and bigger than in Hawaii, and all sorts 
of fruits are abundant. There is almost no attention paid 
to the very profitable growing of cocoanuts. The natives 
simply take what grow wild, with no thought of the possi- 
bilities of development. The pineapples of Guam have 
never been cultivated, and are very small compared with 
the big fruit of Hawaii, but they are far juicier, better in 
flavour, and sweeter, and they do not exhaust the land, as 
is the case in most pineapple countries. No great effort 
has been made with tobacco. It is probably too wet for 
successful growth, and, besides, it is plenty enough and 
cheap enough as imported from the Philippines. Potatoes 
grow in plenty, but they are a sort of yam or sweet potato. 
No effort has ever been made, so far as the Diaz brothers 
know, with Irish potatoes. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE ^' NEW BULLY " AT SUMA 

While all this talk about their country was going on 
Vincente Diaz produced cigarettes and cigars of Manila 
make and a bottle of hell-fire aguardiente of his own dis- 
tillation. Then from some mysterious inside nook he 
brought out a new and shiny accordion. He gave it to a 
vacant-faced and bashful young man and commanded him 
to play. The Americans joined in the demand at once 
and asked for a dance. But Diaz replied that the Cham- 
orros had no dances. The boy tried the accordion awhile 
and began to play. The first bar made every American in 
the room cock his ears and stare at his neighbour. No 
weird, fantastic music of any sort could have surprised 



S6 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

them. They expected that. They would have called it 
native and been well pleased with it. But this was familiar. 
It wasn^t exactly as they remembered it, " but as the song 
grew louder '^ it developed unmistakably into the " New 
Bully/' and when it struck the chorus the whole crowd 
joined with a roar in yelling : 

When I walk that levee roun' 

I'm lookin' fer dat bully 'n' he mus' be foun'. 

The applause that followed this performance so aston- 
ished the young artist that he stopped playing. When he 
was persuaded to go on again he played ^'^Ta-ra-ra-boom- 
de-ay/' amid the wildest cheers. The reception the 
Americans gave his music surprised him very much. 
There were loud inquiries as to where he learned the tunes, 
but this was the only question, almost, that the Diazes 
could not answer. They '^'^ guessed "" that it was from a 
whaler, and probably they guessed right. But the ^^New 
Bully " is not so very old, and it was mighty queer to hear 
it ground out on an accordion under a cocoanut palm 
thatch in Guam, when it was just the other day that May 
Irwin was singing it in New York. Finally we did get the 
young fellow to play a native tune, and three other young 
chaps sang. It was a curious tune of four notes, and the 
song was all la-la-la through set teeth with a harsh nasal 
twang. It was all with the same emphasis and there was 
no accent. There was no evident reason for its ending 
and it might just as well be going now. The concert 
wound up with '^ Peek-a-Boo '' waltz and two Cham.orros 
danced just a plain waltz step. 

After that the whole party filed out in procession and 
went through the village. We saw the church and school- 
house, and a plantation where women were grinding corn, 
and a still in operation, and bullock carts drawn by water 
buffalo — one big blue-black bull, like the one Mowgli drove 
up for Gisborne Sahib to see. We went into half the 
houses of the village, and every time the women bowed 
and smiled and disappeared. 

Then back to the boat out on the reef, and to the ship 
— but not in a minute. There were things to get — 
cocoanuts by the bushel, bananas by the bunch, pineapples 
by the hundred, as long as we had change to pay for them. 



THE '*NEW bully" AT SUMA 8/ 

Pineapples are very expensive in Guam — a dollar a hun- 
dred. There were machetes, too. One of the things we 
saw in the village was a forge and blacksmith shop where 
a sturdy Chamorro was hammering out machetes from a 
band of steel. The blades were short, broad and heavy. 
A hard wood like lignum-vitae was used for the handles, 
which were fastened to the hafts of the knife blades by 
big copper rivets. These are carried in soft leather sheaths 
swung from leather belts by cords made of the always use- 
ful cocoanut palm leaf. This cord is soft and very pliable, 
and tough and strong. Cocoanut palm leaf should make 
very serviceable rope. The women weave from these 
leaves baskets of all sizes, shaped like bags, vrith gathering 
strings of the same material. The children filled these 
little baskets with curious, bright-coloured shells picked up 
on the beach, and gave them to the Americans. So, with 
our boat loaded down with fruit and curios, we got back 
to the ship for dinner, tired out after an unusually 
energetic day. To-morrow we get away on the last stretch 
of the long journey to Manila. 

Wed:s"esday, June 22. — All night the boats of the 
Charleston kept at their work of packing coal across from 
the Peking to the cruiser, and this morning by 10 o^clock 
the work was done. By that time the heavy baggage for 
the Spanish prisoners aboard the Sydney had come down 
to the landing-place. Boats were sent in for it and it was 
delivered to the prisoners. First it was searched, but 
nothing was found which was not turned over to the 
Spaniards. After the searching had been over for some 
time — the men had been searched, too, when they came 
aboard— Governor Marina turned to Lieutenant-Commander 
Phelps, the naval officer on the Sydney, and said that his 
little penknife had been overlooked in the searching. He 
wanted to know if there was any objection to his keeping 
it. Commander Phelps said certainly not, and so the Don 
kept his knife. There was a lot of baggage for the officials. 
That came in leather trunks and bags. There was very 
little for the soldiers. One friend came to say good-bye. 
He was a Chamorro merchant from Agana. He talked 
awhile with the Governor and then with the others and 
went away. 

There were more visits to Soumaye this morning, and at 



88 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

2 o'clock the squadron began to leave the harbour ; first the 
Australia, then the Sydney, then the Peking, and last the 
Charleston. Just as the Charleston was getting her anchor 
two boats put out to her^one from each shore. The one 
from Piti came under sail and brought more thmgs for the 
Spanish officials. The one from Soumaye came by hand 
power and brought a soldier who had been left in the vil- 
lage. He, too, belonged on the Sydney, and as the cruiser 
cleared the reef she signalled the transport to send a boat. 
The Sydney did so, and got her soldier and the Spaniards' 
baggage. 

Of all the residents of Guam with whom members of 
the First Brigade came in contact Nicolas Diaz was most 
impressed with the capture of the island by the Americans. 
To him it was the fulfilment of prophecy. Three years 
ago, he said, an American whaler said to him : 

'' Nicolas, you wait. Some day before long a big 
American warship will come around that point and take 
this place." 

Nicolas waited. He kept his own counsel, because, as 
he said, '* It was not good to talk too much in Soumaye 
about the Spanish." He kept his faith, too, and sure 
enough the warship did come, and three other ships with 
it, and G-uam is American. 

They are a simple, hospitable people, these Chamorros. 
They sold their machetes to the soldiers, who wanted them 
as curiosities, for a song, and getting more is mighty dif- 
ficult. They use the machete for everything, — all the 
pursuits of peace and war. In peace they can make a 
shift to do without machetes, but, in their small rows it is 
different, as one old woman said when her husband parted 
with his big knife for two silver dollars : ^' Not can fight, 
with money." Last night a party from one of the ships 
went in bathing on a little sand beach that lies south of 
Soumaye. In dressing one of them left his revolver. 
This morning early a boat put out from Soumaye with the 
revolver, and made search of the transports until the owner 
was found. 

Undoubtedly Guam would be a valuable possession for 
the United States. Its resources have never been touched ; 
development of them has never been dreamed of. The 
climate about San Luis d'Apra and Agafia is delightful. 



THE " NEW BULLY " AT SUMA 89 

It is almost better than Honolulu, and there are no 
mosquitos. It rains every day, and at irregular hours : 
sometimes rains hard, but the squalls do not last long, and 
are very refreshing. They keep the temperature down 
and the air free from distressing humidity. One does not 
mind the rain. If you get wet it makes no difference. 
Your clothes are not hurt by the rain in the least, and 
you get dry almost immediately. You do not even take 
the trouble to shift. The breeze always blows fresh and 
cool, and it's really very pleasant. If Manila is only half 
as endurable we shall get along very well. 

The taking away of the Governor of Guam and his staff 
and soldiers leaves the island in a curious situation. In 
theory it is in possession of the United States. The 
Spanish flags have been surrendered and the Stars and 
Stripes raised and saluted. But no representative of 
United States is left to rule in place of the Spaniards taken 
away. The Spanish have not concerned themselves much 
with the administration of the affairs of the Chamorros. 
They have left that to the natives themselves. All they 
have looked out for is the collection of the taxes, which 
they have imposed on almost every simple act of life, such 
as killing a pig, or buying a pony, or planting a field, or 
selliug a barrel of cocoanuts. Civil process, such as it is, 
has lain with the Chamorro chief. The '' policemen ^^ 
appointed by the Spanish have been simply the tax- 
gatherers. JPolice work as we know it has been done by 
the soldiers. The military force maintained by the Span- 
ish has been just enough to hold the simple and mild- 
mannered natives by a show of strength. The one com- 
pany of regulars was enough to insure the impressment 
service of the company of natives, who were not so well 
armed as the Spanish regulars. The natives w^ere com- 
manded by a native Sergeant. 

C Captain Glass talked with Mr. Portusac,the one American 
citizen in Guam, about the status of the country after the 
Spanish rulers were removed, and came to the conclusion 
that it was not necessary to leave any representative of his 
Government in the island. Portusac was quite satisfied 
that affairs would go along in their usual smooth, quiet 
course. The collection of taxes had caused the greatest 
and practically the only trouble, and now the freedom 



90 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

from Spanish taxes would do away with that. The civil 
process would not be disturbed. Portusac was satisfied 
that his own interests were all right without any sort of 
forceful protection, and there it was left. Theoretically 
Guam is a United gj^tes possession ; practically it is an 
independent island ^1 -^^y : '' 

The Mariana or Ijadrone Islands were discovered by the 
great Magellan on the cruise which ended in his death in 
the Philippines. There are a dozen or fifteen of them. 
Guam is the largest, and Agana is the capital of the group. 
The Spaniards called them first the Lad rones because of 
the thieving propensities of the natives. Sometimes they 
called them the Latteen Islands because of the latteen 
sails used in the piratical prahus of the natives. But in 
1668, when most of the natives had been killed by the 
Spaniards and the remaining few thoroughly subdued, 
the name Mariana, in honour of Maria Anna of Austria, 
widow of Philip IV. of Spain, was given to the islands. 
The population of the entire group is estimated variously 
but is probably about 26,000 or 27,000. That of Guam is 
in the neighbourhood of 12,000. Agana has about 4,000 ; 
some of the natives say 5,000. The islands can be made 
immensely valuable. The harbour of San Luis d^Apra can 
be made a magnificent coaling station at very slight ex- 
pense. It is almost in the direct line between Honolulu 
and Manila, and the whole island is capable of the easiest 
and best defence. 



CHAPTER XIV 

MAKILA BAT AT LAST 

U. S. Trai^spokt Australia, Oavite", July 1. — At 
last ! After thirty-six days of ocean the First Brigade set 
eyes at last on the Star-Spangled Banner flying from the 
ships of their countrymen, and such cheers went up as 
drowned for a time the roar of cannonading over north of 
Manila, where the insurgents of Aguinaldo were hammer- 
ing at the Spanish gates. Every gun the flagship Olympia 



MANILA BAY AT LAST 9I 

fired in response to the salute Captain Glass fired from the 
Charleston to Admiral Dewey^s flag got a response in 
cheers from the troopers. It was a noble spectacle. The 
dull grey ships of Dewey^s squadron lay close in together 
off Cavite. With them lay half a dozen little fellows that 
they had captured, and the colliers and auxiliary ships 
they had hired. To the left lay Manila, white-walled in 
front of its background of heavy green, and in front of 
it warships — the ugly, ram-bowed Frenchmen, the white, 
stuffy-looking G-ermans, four of them in a bunch, and the 
trim, black Englishmen. It was good to see that '' white 
ensign. ^^ One thought of the English response to the 
j^roposition for armed intervention, and was glad that the 
flag of England fronted the impudent white and black of 
Germany^s war lord. 

It was half -past 1 o'clock on Tuesday afternoon when 
we made Cape Engaiio, on the north end of Luzon Island 
the rendezvous where we expected to meet a ship from 
Dewey's squadron, xlway to the east a faint blue on the 
horizon showed the presence of a steamer. '^ Full speed 
ahead," signalled the Charleston, and away we went at 
that pace. The lookouts beneath the blue had sighted 
us, too, and presently it grew distinctly into the smoke of 
a steamer. Then two masts with military tops appeared, 
then a funnel, then the hull, and it was the Baltimore. 
How the boys cheered. She came full speed down to the 
Charleston, cleared away a boat, and sent over to Captain 
Glass his instructions. It was all over in a few minutes, 
and then the convoy resumed its regular position, and on 
we came. The Baltimore dropped astern and circled round 
the troopers, frantically cheered by every ship, and show- 
ing in return how Uncle Sam's jackies can yell. 

That night the Baltimore showed the troopers some fun. 
She went ahead of the Charleston at sundown and scouted 
about. 

About midnight she sighted a steamer, and down at the 
stranger she went full tilt, twenty knots an hour. One 
of her forward searchlights never left the stranger, and 
the other kept sweeping the horizon. But nothing else 
was sighted. The cruiser heaved a shot across the stran- 
ger's bows and he hove to in a hurry. The Baltimore 
stopped right across his course and sent a boat aboard him, 



92 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

While the boat was gone the red and white lights on the 
Baltimore's foremast spelled out this message : ^' Am 
hoarding strange steamer." On the troopships we waited 
in breathless silence for the result. Presently the red 
lights winked again, the attention signal. And then came 
this message : " Strange vessel is English." "What a dis- 
appointment that was ! Full speed ahead again and on 
toward Manila. Four o'clock brought another steamer 
and all the excitement over again. But again it was an 
Englishman. 

Then we struck the China Sea. Kow, this is good 
advice to fair weather sailors : Let the China Sea alone. 
There blow the monsoons, and when the southwest one 
finishes the northeastern takes it up. One is just as bad 
as the other. Either will stand you alternately on your 
eyebrows and the back of your neck, and don't fool your- 
self into thinking you can get in your bunk and sleep, 
because the gentle monsoon will promptly toss you out. 

Well, we got through the China Sea and came into 
Manila Bay, green and fair. Eight at the entrance, 
opposite Corregidor Island, in a little bight, lay three 
German warships, the big cruiser Kaiserin Augusta in the 
lead. As we passed in she got up steam and impudently 
followed, trailing along hardly a cable's length away until 
the Charleston had saluted Admiral Dewey's flag. Then 
having seen all of the first expedition that she could by 
her flagrant impoliteness, she tried to smooth over the 
impertinence by breaking out the Stars and Stripes at the 
fore, saluting, and going on to join the other Germans, 
four of them, the French and English, anchored in front 
of Manila. 

How glad we were to get in and how glad the fleet was 
to see us ! The insurgents have been pressing the Spanish 
hard. They are hammering at the outskirts of Manila 
every day. They have 3,000 prisoners, including the 
family of the Governor, which they caught out driving in 
the suburbs one day. The surgeons of the fleet go over to 
insurgent headquarters near Cavite and look after their 
wounded. Aguinaldo's men are well armed, partly with 
rifles they took from the Cavite arsenal when Dewey cap- 
tured it, partly with rifles they have bought, and partly 
with guns taken from the Spanish, or brought over by 



IN CAMP BEFORE MANILA 93 

native soldiers, some of whom have deserted by the bat- 
talion ; and they have plenty of ammunition. As I write 
this I can hear the cannonading, as they are attacking 
Manila. Yesterday they took a small water battery north 
of the city. To-day the Sj^aniards are wasting ammunition 
from their 8-inch Krupp guns in trying to drive them 
away. 

Admiral Dewey called on General Anderson almost as soon 
as the Australia was anchored last night and acquainted 
the commander of the troops with the situation as he 
knew it. This morning they went ashore and selected a 
camping place for the troops in the navy yard. ISTow the 
men are getting their kits into shape, and already the 
lighters are coming alongside to take them ashore. 

The spectacle presented by the bay about Cavite can 
hardly find adequate description. All around lie the 
wrecks of the Spanish ships. Three or four of them 
would do fairly well in appearance as wrecks of the Maine., 
The naval men do not attempt to explain how it was they 
were not hit themselves in the fight. It rained and hailed 
shells. The Spanish gunners hit all around the American 
ships, but always missed them. 



CHAPTEE XV 

IN CAMP BEFORE MANILA 

Cayite, July 3. — On shore again at last ! After thirty- 
eight days at sea, all across the Pacific at half steam, it is 
good to be on land once more, even if the land is in Cavite. 
Cavite itself is not prepossessing, and San Eoque, across 
the causeway, is worse. There was once a learned and 
clever gentleman who objected to Cologne because of its 
^' two and seventy stenches and as many separate stinks.^' 
But he never had been in Cavite or San Eoque. He never 
had seen the gentle Filipino on his native heath. 

It was no easy task getting the three big transport?i 
loaded in San Francisco, but that was by-play to the work 



94 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

of unloading them. An immense amount of stores had 
been stowed away in the holds of the troopers. The single 
item of rations gives some notion of it. There are nearly 
2,400 men in the Eirst Brigade, and the equipment order 
provided rations for six months for them, or nearly 440,- 
000 rations. Each ration weighs four pounds, or a total 
of nearly 1,000 tons simply of rations. Then there was 
ammunition, tons of it. Enough for a hard campaign 
with a lot of fighting. Tons more of commissary stores 
for sale to officers. More tons, many of them of Quarter- . 
master's stores, camp equipage, tents by the hundred, 
men's kits, kettles, pans, boilers and patent stoves. And 
besides all this stuff for the army, the Peking had more 
than 2,000 tons of stores for the navy. 

The Cavite navy yard has a pier big enough for vessels 
of 2,500 tons, but too small for the troopships, so all this 
stuff had to be lightered ashore. Well, the lighters would 
make you laugh. They are Philippine affairs, called cas- 
cos, big, flat-bottomed dumping-scow contrivances that 
draw little water and carry from 60 to 125 tons. They 
are built of teak — everything here is either teak or mahog- 
any — and are strong enough to knock stones out of a solid 
masonry breakwater. They are from six to eight feet 
wide, the same beam throughout, and from forty to sixty 
feet long. At the stern and bow they are decked with 
bamboo for about ten feet, and there the casco men live 
with their multitudinous families. Along the centre of 
the casco, about three or four feet above the gunwales, 
runs a bamboo pole, and over this bamboo thatches are 
slung, completely protecting casco and cargo from rain. 
Along each side of the casco heavy teak beams are stepped 
at intervals of about ten feet. These beams extend out- 
board about two feet. Bamboo poles, four inches or less 
in diameter, are bound to the under side of these beams 
by cane thongs, making a sort of running board such as 
open trolley cars carry. Across the gunwales three or 
four heavy teak beams are lashed to tie the sides of the 
casco together. 

The big teak planks of the hull are tied together by 
heavy double copper rivets, shaped like the old-fashioned 
inverted U carpet tacks. The seams are calked and 
pitched; and a grating of bamboo covers the bottom. I 



IN CAMP BEFORE MANILA 95 

was wrong in saying that everything was made of teak or 
mahogany. Everything is made of bamboo except what 
is made of teak or mahogany. The rudders of these 
cascos are enough to jar a sailorman off the f oreyard. The 
old packets make such slow time that there is hardly steer- 
age way on them, and it takes a rudder of some size to 
make them answer. The result is a contraption of teak 
planks four feet wide at the post and tapering to eighteen 
inches at the outboard end, fully a foot thick. It is oper- 
ated by a ten-foot tiller, which keeps the after-cabin 
tenants hopping about from side to side, as it swings Avhen 
the ship is in motion. Sometimes, when it is desirable to 
turn in less than a mile or so and the helm is put hard 
over, the tiller swings clear of the sides of the casco, and 
the patron, or coxswain, stands on it and, bracing himself 
against his roof thatch, forces it out. It is heavy enough 
so that he is sure of not falling into the sea by a sudden 
swing too far. 

The bamboo running boards present a curious problem 
to a Yankee because they are bound beneath their sup- 
ports instead of on top of them. There is no sense in it. 
A lashing breaks and down goes the running board, and 
whoever happens to be on it goes into the water. But 
the natives do not care about that. They swim like fish, 
and are wet through two or three times a day. They wear 
only the thinnest kind of cotton shirts and trousers, and 
water is the least of their few troubles. 

To tow these cascos back and forth between the ships 
and the piers there is a fine collection of old steam launches 
and small boats. They were all in use in and about the 
navy yard here when the Spanish cruisers and gunboats 
went down in that Mayday fight. When the navy yard 
and arsenal were surrendered to Admiral Dewey he took 
such of the launches and steamers as he could use and 
gave what were beyond profitable repair to the insurgents. 
They are big and little and of all sorts. They are operated 
by crews and natives, Chinese, men from the ships and 
combination crews. But they do a lot of work despite 
their nondescript appearance. The Eapido has been tow- 
ing the four or five cascos put at the disposal of General 
Anderson by the Admiral. She is a nice boat, but she 
ought to be called the Slowido, or the Slowerido. Some 



96 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

sort of speed could be made in loading cascos at the ships 
because there was apparatus to work with, cranes, whips, 
derricks, and tackles, but at the pier it was hard work, 
and that by natives who did not understand the language 
of their employers and had peculiar notions about work- 
ing, anyway. If you work the average Filipino five hours 
a day and pay him by the hour, taking the even hours all 
through the day to pay off for the work done in the odd 
hours, you will get about twice as much done as if you 
worked him ten hours a day and paid at night. If you 
pay at the end of the week, heaven help you, the natives 
won^t. 

The first thing to be done, of course, in the matter of 
taking the First Brigade ashore was to select quarters. 
That was comparatively easy. The navy yard and arsenal 
were full of big, barrack-like buildings that had been 
used for storehouses and machine shops. In some of them 
there were fine living rooms. In the navy yard the Com- 
mandant had a fine, great house with superb quarters. 
His Adjutant had a beautiful house for himself near that 
of the Commandant. Old Fort San Felipe furnished more 
quarters, and barracks, too. The old hospital was used 
for its original purpose, and the barracks which had been 
occupied by the Spanish naval infantry and other troops 
stationed here were put in use again by the California and 
Oregon boys. They were brought ashore, a hundred or 
more to a casco, the day after the transports got here. 
They had two days' rations with them, and the rest of the 
supplies have been following ever since. Order will begin 
to appear out of the chaos in a day or two, but just now 
everything is piled in heaps. Kegimental Quartermasters 
are hard at it straightening out their stores. The Brigade 
Commissary and Quartermaster have got their stores started 
ashore, and several casco loads are piled up in the big 
shops they have taken as storehouses. The general store 
which the Commissary will open for the service of the 
officers has for a stock now a fine lot of canned roast beef 
and nothing else. The Quartermaster has some shovels 
and tents ashore and hopes for more. But it is all coming. 
There's some comfort in that. 

At first there was hesitation about landing the stores. 
General Anderson learned from the Admiral of the starting 



IN CAMP BEFORE MANILA 97 

of the Spanish expedition for the relief of the Philippines. 
Admiral Dewey, down in his heart, is sure he can whale 
that Spanish squadron with his ships he has here now, but 
if you talk with him about it he will put on a solemn face 
and gravely discuss the possibility of having to leave Manila 
Bay if the Spanish fleet comes. For a day or two General 
Anderson apparently took that talk seriously, and he de- 
termined that stores should go ashore only as needed. 
But now he has changed his mind and everything is to be 
taken out of the transports at once. 

The Brigade Quartermaster, Major Jones, having solved 
the problem of native help by paying at the end of each 
half day, the work of unloading is going on fairly rapidly. 
To the Quartermaster belongs all the work of transporta- 
tion, so he has to get all the stores ashore. His clerks 
have caught the art of making natives work. The natives 
are small-bodied men but very muscular. With the right 
sort of encouragement they keep at it well and get a lot 
done. They easily outwork the big Oregon and California 
soldiers. Last nio-ht seventv of them unloaded a casco 
and a half, more than 100 tons of cargo, and carried the 
boxes a hundred yards and up a flight of stairs into the 
Commissary's store house, between 7 and 10 o'clock. 
Major Jones says Filipino labor is the best he has ever seen, 
and he has had a great deal of experience. 

The quarters occupied by the men are fairly comfortable, 
and those of the officers are fine. The men are all close 
to the ground, and therefore not in such dry places as are 
desirable, but they have cleaned up their barracks thor- 
oughly and made them sanitary. They can stand a long 
stay here with no bad effects from the character of their 
quarters. Each man has a bed, built of bamboo, which 
stands nearly two feet off the floor, and if it were not for 
the mosquitoes they would be fairly content. They have 
got their own messes and their own tooks, and the com- 
plaints about food which were constant on the ships are 
heard no more. 

The officers are almost palatially housed. The Spaniards 
who were stationed here knew how to live. The rooms 
are immense, with ceilings at least fifteen feet high. The 
floors are of teak and are kept bare. The furniture is of 
mahogany. The rooms were furnished beautifully when 

7 



If 

98 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

the Spaniards went out^, but there was only enough left 
for us to show what it had been. The insurgents who 
looted Cavite when the Spaniards went out, had not 
stopped at the navy yard gate. Great mirrors, chairs, beds, 
desks, tables, settees, sideboards, all were taken, and when 
Admiral Dewey found oat what was going on and set a 
marine guard in the yard to stop the looting, only the 
heavier pieces were left. The tables are beautiful and the 
beds are wonders of wood -working skill. They are enor- 
mous affairs, each with great high canopy frames of finely 
carved mahogany. The frames are solid mahogany and 
the corner posts are carved out in mahogany logs. In 
place of springs the posts and side-boards are bound to- 
gether with woven cane, such as is used to seat chairs in 
the States. The desks are fine and roomy, and beautifully 
made. The one at which this'is written would gladden the 
heart of any ISTew York lover of old mahogany. It is 
built like a chest of drawers, with heavy brass handles 
like the drop handles on a sailorman^'s chest. The top 
drawer pulls out and the front of it swings down, showing 
a double row of pigeon-holes and giving a wide writing 
table. It was stowed in the back corner of the old navy 
yard paint shop and filled with yellow ochre, so the loot 
hunters overlooked it. 

The Spaniards have more kinds of chairs than a Grand 
Eapids factory, most of them made of mahogany, but 
some of bamboo. As a rule they are big easy fellows, 
with backs well tilted back and broad rests for the arms. 
Seme of them escaped the thieves, b".it most of those the 
looters could not carry away they smashed with gun butts. 
Cavite is full of this stolen furniture. Nearly every house 
shows two or three pieces. Even the Cascos have big 
bamboo settles. They are fine beds for the men. 

Well, we are ashore and in quarters, and our stores are 
coming ashore as fast as they can. Drills begin now, and 
target practice, and scouting parties will go out, and work 
be done while we sit around and wait for the next expedi- 
tion to come. The lights of Manila blaze in our faces 
nightly. The mountains invite us to places that are cool. 
But we are in quarters. 



AGUINALDO'S WONDERFUL BAND 99 



CHAPTER XVI 

agui:n"Aldo's woi^derful band 

July 4. — There may not be gains for all onr losses, but 
surely there are for some of them. The thing which it 
was least expected we should find out here is here, — good 
music. A wonderful band marched up the muddy Calle 
de San Francisco from Aguinaldo^s headquarters this 
morning and for an hour serenaded General Anderson with 
playing that would set the music-lovers of New York wild 
with excitement. 

The average Filipino does not present the appearance 
of a musician or a music lover. But for his bright, intel- 
ligent eyes he would look like a stupid Patagonian sheep 
herder. There are few musical instruments in the native 
villages. Once in a while one runs across an old tin-pan- 
toned, cracked piano horribly out of tune, and two or 
three places have harps. But this band, composed entirely 
of Filipinos, is worthy to rank with the bands of the world. 
It was the famous military band of Manila, where it used 
to furnish classic music on the Luneta when the aristocratic 
Spaniards went out for their evening drive or promenade. 
And occasionally, or oftener, it was turned out to play 
while a few dozens of the musicians' people were shot for 
the edification of the multitude on the charge of sympathis- 
ing with insurrection or some other trumped-up accusa- 
tion. 

In Manila there were seventy-two members. Sixty of 
them managed to get away with their instruments and 
music. This morning forty-eight played on the little 
plaza in front of General Anderson's headquarters. And 
such playing ! It was recompense for every discomfort, 
every vexation, every disappointment, every hardship of 
7,000 miles in a troopship, the last 5,000 at half steam in 
a tropic sea. You shut your eyes and heard the orchestra 
of the Royal Opera at Vienna, the great Budapest Band, 
the famous military band in Berlin, the Boston Symphony 



100 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

at its best, SeidFs finest work, anytliing in the world. 
With never a note in front of them, they played what you 
liked, any part of any opera, the grandest music ever 
written, or a simple Strauss waltz or a folksong. And 
the bass drummer was the leader. You will never hear a 
bass drum really played until you hear that Filipino do it. 
He makes a bass drum talk, sing, cry, shout. It fits the 
mood and movement of the music. It is subordinate or 
dominant, soft, subdued, or loud and roaring ; it laughs 
and chuckles like a thing alive ; it raves and protests like 
an angry soldier, and all in perfect harmony and sympathy 
with the rest. The ambition of the average bass drummer 
is to develo23 the muscles in his arms. He pounds the un- 
complaining drum as if he were swinging clubs for exercise. 
But with this Filipino it is science and an art, and he is 
master of both. 

It is a curiously organised band — one bass drum, two 
snares, a lyre, five tubas, eleven saxophones, big and 
little ; eleven clarinets, eight cornets, one ballad horn, and 
four altos and tenors. They played songs from ^' Faust," 
and I sat again in the Metropolitan Opera House and 
heard and saw the vast audience get to its feet with frantic 
cheers when Calve and the two De Eeszkes finished the 
prayer song. They played, but no telling describes what 
they played. Come out when we take Manila and sit 
under the arc lights on the Luneta and hear them play for 
yourself. The 10,000 miles you have come from New 
York will drift away into nothing, and you will hear only 
the music and be glad you are alive. 

This Fourth of July, 7,000 miles from our nearest home 
shore was a great day. It was one of the fairest days that 
ever shone over a fair land. The sun rode through clear 
heavens all day, but a brisk breeze tempered his tropic 
rays and made even the sunshine delightful. And now, 
in the full moonlight, with the stars gleaming like white 
diamonds in the far blue sky, the boom of cannon and the 
rattle of rifles rolling across the bay from Malate, where 
the Spaniards and insurgents are at it, gives the only re- 
minder of the grim work to do. 

In accordance with the usual custom all work except the 
necessary police and guard duty was suspended on shore 
and aboard ship, and soldiers and sailors had a day of rest. 



AGUINALDO'S WONDERFUL BAND lOI 

The sun rose from behind the mountains back of Manila 
to see the ships of the squadron dressed out in all their 
many-coloured flags swung in a string from stem to stern 
over the triatic stay. Across the bay a few miles the 
advancing day showed two significant things. A cloud 
of smoke marked the German ships, and presently out of 
it they came, and in sullen silence steamed down to Mari- 
veles Bay, opposite Corregidor Island, with only their own 
flags flying, and with no disposition on board to burn 
powder in saluting the birthday of the Stars and Stripes. 
But over the English ships floated the many-hued symbols 
of rejoicing, and when noon came and our deep-voiced 
gun gave a double three times three, and then three more 
to the nation, back across the bay rolled the answering 
thunder as the British ships broke out the Stars and Stripes 
and answered gun for gun our own salute. 

In the morning the entire brigade was reviewed by General 
Anderson and Admiral Dewey. Aguinaldo had been in- 
vited to be present with the General and the Admiral, but 
he sent word that he was '^ indisposed," and that probably 
was true. But he sent his band in his place, and it is no 
doubt true that every one at headquarters would rather 
have heard the band once than seen the insurgent dictator 
a great many times. There was not much room in front 
of headquarters for the review, but the boys marched well 
and presented a fine appearance. They are a fine-looking 
lot of sturdy young fellows, with splendid spirit as far as 
their work is concerned, and they ought to give a good 
account of themselves if the time ever comes when they 
are called upon to meet the Spanish in the field. 



102 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 



CHAPTER XVII 

CAVITE 

July 6. — If you turn the State of Massachusetts upside 
down so that Cape Cod runs out to the west instead of to 
the east, you have a fairly good representation, on a some- 
what larger scale, of Manila Bay and Point Sanglei, on 
which Cavite is situated. Then Boston would represent 
Manila, and Provincetown Cavite, with the towns and 
those villages down to Middleboro standing for the vil- 
lages around this narrow neck from San Roque through 
Cavite Viejo, Imus, San Francisco, Malabon, Bakor, Pa- 
ranaque, Malabay, Pineda, Malate and Ermate to Manila. 
There is this additional difference, that this point is 
double, with a small but fairly deep bay cutting in between 
the Cavite navy yard and Point Sanglei. 

The country around Manila Bay is beautiful, it is 
heavily wooded down to the water's edge, and in the back- 
ground, all the way from the Sierra Mariveles, the main- 
land north of Corregidor Island, clear around to the south 
of Manila, back of Old Cavite, mountains rising to an 
average height of 5,000 feet, with some of them going 
almost 7,000 feet up toward the sky. Most of them are 
of regular outline, big, sharp-peaked fellows whose tops 
look from the water as if they would be uncomfortable 
seats. The arsenal and navy yard, with the barracks and 
buildings for officers, occupy about half or two-thirds of a 
mile of Cavite Point. At the tip end of Sanglei the Span- 
iards had a battery of two 10-inch guns, which went out 
of action soon after the 8-inch rifles of the Olympia 
and Baltimore got after them on Mayday. Behind this 
battery on Sanglei is a little village, which the natives call 
Caiiacao. There an Englishman named Young has a ship- 
yard and coal pockets. 

In the little bay between Sanglei and Cavite lie the 
wrecks of the best three ships the Spaniards had — the 
Reina Cristina, the flagship of Admiral Montojo ; the Don 



CAVITE 103 

Antonio de UUoa, the best ship of the enemy's fleet, and 
the Castilla, which suffered probably the largest loss, pro- 
portionately in killed, of all the Spanish ships. They lie 
little more than awash, but at low tide are exposed enough 
to show the sorry work done on them by the American 
shells. It gives one a curious sensation of sympathy mixed 
with pride to see the pitiable spectacle the Spanish wrecks 
present, and then to hunt through our ships for marks 
of the conflict. The Baltimore carries almost the only 
scar. There is hardly a mark on the other ships. The 
Baltimore's was made by a 6-inch shell that struck her 
just at the gun deck, went across the ship and was turned 
by a gun shield, recrossed the ship above the deck and fell 
to the deck without exploding. 

The tip end of Point Cavite is occupied by an old fort. 
There were mounted on the heavy stone parapet a lot 
of old 6 and 8-inch smooth-bores. The insurgents are 
lugging them away now, and dragging them with infinite 
labour and pains up behind their trenches near Malate. 
Some day before long they will open with grape and can- 
ister on the Spanish breastworks about 300 yards in front 
of them, and then they will gain that much more ground 
from the little Spain now holds. For the Spanish 
will run when those guns open up as surely as they are 
alive. 

Behind this old fort stand the buildings of the navy 
yard and arsenal, great big machine shops and storehouses, 
occupied now by the Quartermaster and Commissary, and 
as quarters by some of the brigade officers. The machine 
shops are in charge of engineers from the fleet and of 
Naval Constructor Capps, who came out on the Peking. 
All sorts of repair work is going on, and there are complete 
facilities for almost any sort of naval work. The insur- 
gents are permitted to work in the shops and they are 
making the most of their opportunity. They have stripped 
the guns from some of the sunken Spanish ships, and are 
making new breech-blocks to replace those thrown into 
the sea by the defeated Spaniards, or ruined by the fires 
which destroyed that part of the enemy's vessels which 
was not submerged when the ships went down. 

Fort San Felipe backs up the navy yard with its solid 
stone wall. There the California artillerymen are guard- 



104 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

ing the sixty prisoners from Guam. Facing San Felipe on 
the Bakor Bay side of the point are the big houses of the 
Commandant of the yard and the gentleman who was 
called Ayutante Mayor. The Commandant's establish- 
ment furnishes quarters for the Fourteenth Eegular Infan- 
try and its officers, and there are superb quarters reserved 
for General Merritt and his staff when they come. Gen- 
eral Anderson occupies the Adjutant^'s honse with brigade 
headquarters. In the barracks beyond the California vol- 
unteers are located, with a separate building for hospital 
and another for regimental band headquarters, and a long 
row of little office-like places for the officers. Outside the 
gate are the Oregon quarters, and a field big enough for a 
brigade review. 

Beyond these buildings and this field lies Cavite, a place 
of indefinitely numbered inhabitants, where Spaniards 
were plenty but are so few as to excite much comment by 
their appearance. It is a narrow streeted, vile-smelling, 
filthy old junk shop, where all sorts of sewage is thrown 
into the streets and nobody cares. Insurgents are in force 
in Cavite. The fine great mansions once occupied by the 
Spanish now furnish quarters for Aguinaldo and his lieu- 
tenants. One great building he uses for headquarters. 
Another he took as a prison, and there and in its yard he 
confined more than 2,000 Spaniards. In one little shop 
near the navy yard gate a beehive of Filipinos is in opera- 
tion cleaning and reloading cartridge shells. So it goes 
everywhere. The insurgents make everything serve their 
purpose. But now Aguinaldo has promised to evacuate 
Cavite in order to give room for the soldiers of the Second 
and Third Brigades, and even now he is moving his head- 
quarters across the bay to Bakor. 

The buildings of Cavite are mostly of stone and two 
stories high. The upper part is used for the dwelling and 
the lower part for a shop or storage. Nobody lives on the 
ground floor, it is too damp. S'obody ever heard of a 
Street Cleaning Department in Cavite. The streets are 
not even guttered. If they were the tremendous rains 
would do a great deal toward keeping them clean. Water 
is had anywhere at a depth of a few feet, but it is not safe 
to use it for drinking. Each house has a tank for the 
storage of rainwater. All water used by the troops is sup* 



CAVITE 105 

posed to be boiled. The men are not particular about it, 
but the officers filter the water after it has been boiled. 

On the whole the situation of the troops is fairly good. 
They are more comfortable than they would be in camp 
and probably can be kept in better health. The weather 
is hot and humid, but the nights are cool, and before morn- 
ing one usually needs a blanket. At first guard mount 
was at 10 o'clock, but after a few men had fainted from 
exhaustion or been overcome by the heat it was moved up 
to 8 o^'clock, and by and by it probably will be at 6, where 
it ought to be. Five in the evening would be better. 
The first call goes at 4:45 a.m. and reveille at 4:55. Drill 
begins soon after 5 and lasts an hour. Then breakfast 
comes. Work is all supposed to be done before guard 
mount, so that the heat of the day finds the men with 
nothing to do. The camp is being settled rapidly, and 
the streets and grounds cleared and cleaned. There is 
talk of turning all the natives out of Cavite when the 
next brigades come and giving the place a thorough clean- 
ing up. It would be a good thing, and perhaps General 
Merritt will do it. It would be no hardship on the natives, 
for most of them are squatters, who have come in since 
the Mayday fight. 

One of the most interesting spectacles in Cavite is fur- 
nished by the wreck of the Spanish shops. The insur- 
gents looted with a nice discrimination after the Spaniards 
crossed the causeway and retreated toward Manila. They 
let the shops of the Japanese and Filipinos entirely alone, 
but the Spanish places were utterly destroyed. One big 
store on the Calle de San Francisco looks as if a big pole 
had been sent down through the roof and swung round 
and round. All that was valuable was taken away, and 
the inside is now an indiscriminate pile of debris that looks 
as if it had been stirred up by a gigantic poker. 

The men are anxious to get on to Manila, but it is 
doubtful if they would be as comfortable in Manila as 
here. Every breeze that blows, from whatever direction, 
strikes their quarters here, and there are no stone pave- 
ments to store up the frightful heat of the sun and radiate 
it back at night. But Manila is the goal, and they want 
it. 



I06 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 



CHAPTER XVIII 

GOIiq'G TO THE FRONT UNDER DIFFICULTIES 

Cavite, July 16. — There is a musical note in the whistle 
of a Mauser bullet through the air, a slightly vibrant note 
with a carrying quality that makes it distinguishable at a 
considerable distance. If it were not so one could not tell 
much about the Spanish firing because the bullets rarely 
come close to the object aimed at, and as the Mauser am- 
munition is smokeless one never can see whence the fire 
comes. I have spent several hours in the insurgent out- 
posts in the last few days and have been literally under 
Spanish fire — it all went very high — long enough to get 
pretty thoroughly familiar with the sound of it. The first 
sensation of being shot at is a little disconcerting. If one's 
notions of rifle-shooting have always been connected with 
the idea of sport, big game — deer, bear, antelope — it is a 
bit startling to realise suddenly that the whistling bullet 
one hears go by was meant for himself. But if you are in 
an insurgent trench that feeling soon passes by, as the 
bullet does, and one becomes like the Filipinos, rather in- 
different to Spanish poor marksmanship. It is reported 
here that General Shafter lost from 800 to 1,000 men in an 
attack on Santiago de Cuba. If that is so the Spaniards 
have better riflemen there than here. 

Going out to the front ! That has a warlike sound about 
it. One involuntarily invests the proposition with visions 
of wounded men, field hospitals, firing lines, men in action, 
and all the concomitants of business-like warfare. As the 
troopships bearing the First Brigade of the Philippine ex- 
pedition drew up to their anchorage, with the ships of 
Dewey's fieet on June 30, smoke was rising from many 
fires along the shore both north and south of Manila, and 
the roar of big guns and the th-r-r-ump of machine guns 
and volley fire drifted out across the bay. It sounded 
like a big battle all along the line, and those who had been 
here a month or so told us that in fact a great fight was 



GOING TO THE FRONT UNDER DIFFICULTIES 10/ 

going on. The firing continued for an hour or two. At 
intervals in the night there was more of it, and daylight 
brought a sharp rally. That afternoon word went around 
that the insurgents had taken a water battery between 
Malabon and Tambobong, two native towns north of 
Manila. That night there was more shooting, the dull, 
distant boom of cannon punctuating the rattle of small 
arras. At insurgent headquarters they answered our 
questions with the polite response that they had had no 
reports from the front. I have learned since that they 
never do have them, except when they are of interest to 
the insurgent cause, but at that time that response was 
complete if disappointing. 

Every day as we were getting into quarters ashore the 
firing continued, and on the night of the Fourth there 
was a special celebration, as if in honour of the day. The 
5th, it rained all day, and there was no movement, bat on 
the morning of the 6th we started, five newspaper men, an 
interpreter, and '' Colonel" Johnson, an American soldier 
of fortune, who is here as Aguinaldo's chief of ordnance. 
He ran a hotel — the Astor House — in Shanghai for a while, 
and came down here on a cinematograph proposition. 
Now the insurgents are guarding his machine in Lipa, 
and he is showing them how to handle smooth-bore cannon 
here. We had with us Mr. Oharvet, a Frenchman, born 
in JSTew York, who was Johnson's partner in the cinemato- 
graph. He speaks Spanish fluently. Early in the morn- 
ing the party started across the bay from the fleet to 
Paranaque. The American flag flew from our boat, which 
was pulled by four Filipinos. Paranaque is within range 
of the Krupp guns in the Spanish fort at Malate, but the 
Spaniards know that firing on a small boat carrying the 
American flag will provoke a bombardment of Manila, 
and so they do not try such target practice. Paranaque 
is on both sides of the Paranaque Eiver, into the mouth 
of which we pulled. A hundred yards up the river it is 
crossed by a bridge of bamboo, with the girders, bound 
on the under side of the stringers by cane thongs, and no 
apparent reason why it does not come down forty times a 
day. The flooring of the bridge is of bamboo, thin strips 
woven into pieces about six feet square and laid down on 
the girders, wherever there seems to be need of it. 



I08 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

When we had tied up at the bridge we first engaged 
conveyances to take ns toward the front. The natives 
are extremely friendly to Americans and will put them- 
selves to no end of trouble and inconvenience for our 
pleasure or profit. The first intimation of what we 
wanted sent a dozen men scurrying after the waggons. 
The only vehicle known to the Filipino as a transporter 
of persons is the carromatta, a two-wheeled affair with 
springs and axles of prodigious strength, that will accom- 
modate two passengers. Motive power is furnished by 
Filipino horses. A Filipino horse would be the dearest 
delight of the average American boy or girl. It stands 
from 7 to 11 hands high — the 10-hand fellows are ex- 
ceptionally large — and weigh from 550 to 650 pounds. 
They are a little better shaped than the Shetland ponies, 
trimmer, not so thick-set or big boned, but very sturdy. 
There are very few geldings ; most of the ponies used in 
carromattas are stallions, and they are of good mettle, 
tough and ambitious. I have seen one drag a heavy 
carromatta with four men in it, much more than his own 
weight, nearly four miles over the toughest sort of road. 
For comfort the carromatta is worse than an Irish jaunt- 
ing car, but it does its work, and one cannot march over 
this country and make distance or time. 

Our carromatta engaged, we started for the old convent, 
where insurgent headquarters had been established, to 
call on the General commanding the forces at the front. 
Paranaque, we understood, was very near the lines. Since 
Dewey's fight the insurgents had forced the Spanish steadily 
back through San Francisco, Malabon, Cavite Vie jo, Imus, 
Bakor, Los Pinas, Paranaque, and Malabai, and were now 
fighting in front of Malate, the last outpost but one in 
front of the walls of old Manila. The guards at the door 
of the old convent presented arms as we came up, and 
from some invisible place inside a dozen or more soldiers 
sprang out to lead us to the General. We followed across 
a courtyard and up a fiight of broad stone steps, through 
a long, broad room like the banquet hall of a German 
palace, across a hall and into a big, square room, where 
at a huge table in the centre sat a square-shouldered, 
heavily built, bullet-headed but pleasant-faced young 
Filipino in the dark blue gingham uniform worn by in- 



GOING TO THE FRONT UNDER DIFFICULTIES IO9 

surgents and Spanish alike. He jumped to his feet as we 
entered and with a friendly smile extended his hand and 
said, " Grood-morning.'^ His face was of the yellowish 
red of old copper, his eyes were a very dark brown, almost 
black, and very bright. He had the flat nose, broad face 
and high cheek bones of the pure-blood Filipino, with a 
square under jaw. His appearance suggested solidity and 
strength, but there was something of lethargy, too. This 
was Mariano N'oriel, General of Brigade, in command of 
the ^^ First Zone." Beside him stood a slender young 
fellow, similarly dressed. He was Lieutenant Colonel- 
Juan Cailles segiindo cabo in the Primer a Zona de Manila. 
There with more alertness and energy in the attitude and 
appearance of the Lieutenant-Colonel than in the Greneral. 
His bearing and manner suggested impetuosity and eager- 
ness. One recalled Colonel N'estor Aranguren, the impet- 
uous 3^oung Cuban whose "^ dashness " led him to his death, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Cailles has something Spanish in his 
features. His face is narrow and long, with a straight, 
clear-cut, fine nose, sharp-pointed chin, firm, small mouth, 
thin lips, deep-set, wide-open, piercing black eyes, like the 
*^ gimlet eyes '' of Inspector Javert, '^ at the same time sharp 
and penetrating." A silky black moustache curls over his 
upper lip and partly conceals his mouth. There was a 
spring in his step which was wanting in the ponderous 
tread of the heavy young General, and a restlessness in his 
manner that betokened a liking for action. Involuntarily 
one pictured him in the front line of the advance, a hard 
fighter and a good leader. There was nothing about the 
uniform of either to indicate his rank. But the red and 
blue ribbons with red, white and blue cockades on the 
hats of each, and the fact that both wore boots, showed 
them to be officers. It is the certain mark of rank when 
a Filipino puts on boots. Each carried also a sword and 
a riding whip. 

Salutations, over, cigarettes and cigars passed around, 
we said we wanted to go to the front. The eyes of the 
Filipinos danced with pleasure. The dozen or more aides 
and attendants in the room smiled and talked together in 
Togallog, the native language. General Noriel said he 
would be glad to have us go to the front, and he himself and 
Lieutenant-Colonel Cailles would go with us. Very good, 



no OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Young Captain Guzman — all these insurgent officers are 
young, some of them little more than boys, Noriel is 
twenty-eight — developed a silent laugh that spread all over 
his face, and sat down at the table to write out passes. 
He is the General's Adjutant. At that some one remem- 
bered the pass he had acquired from General Don Emilio 
Aguinaldo, Dictator and President. Guzman laughed again 
when he saw Don Emilio's signature, and promptly vised the 
pass. Then the other passes came out, and then there 
were more cigars and cigarettes. 

The room was plainly furnished, but the furniture was all, 
like the General, square and solid. Great reclining arm- 
chairs, half a dozen of them, in a double row by a window 
that looked out over the village ; a massive old clock in a 
tall mahogany case, such as our great-grandfathers used 
to stand in the hallways ; a case, made as if for books, 
with a pile of music in it, all the operas, and the best the 
best have written. Some little talk of the situation, the 
distance to the trenches, the formation of the lines, the 
condition of the two forces, number of men in the trenches 
(Spanish and insurgents), losses in the fighting, and then 
we start. But not for the front. General Noriel has sent an 
aide to the house of one of his friends in Paranaque — 
his own home is in Bakor— to say that seven Americans are 
with him and they need refreshments. We start out in 
the rain and walk half a mile to a big house built of molare 
wood and thatched with nipa palm. It stands well up 
from the ground on solid molare posts, and is surrounded 
by a flower garden and by mango trees. The whole house- 
hold greets us cordially, and it is announced that soup 
will be ready very soon. Meantime we sit down and make 
mutual exhibition of our weapons. The sides of the house 
are pierced by windows made of small panes of translucent 
shell, something like mother-of-pearl. The panes are per- 
haps two and a half inches square. They are set closely to- 
gether in wooden frames two and a half feet wide by four 
feet high which slide back into the wall. Over the windows 
hang thick nipa thatches which are propped up with 
bamboo poles and form awnings, effectually keeping out 
the rain. These windows run completely around the 
house. 

As we sit by the open window the Filipinos crowd around 



GOING TO THE FRONT UNDER DIFFICULTIES III 

to see our revolvers. The new hamnierless weapons most 
of us carry excite their liveliest admiration. They inquire 
eagerly as to the cost, and when told that such a revolver 
costs $35 in Hong Kong — silver — reply that they would 
give $50 for one here. They have old-fashioned, cheap, 
English, German and Belgian revolvers, all six-shooters 
and double action. But they recognise the great superi- 
ority of our guns. Their ammunition is gathered from 
the corners of the world. In one revolver I saw cartridges 
from Bridgeport, Conn. ; from Kussia, from England, 
from Germany, and from Belgium. It is common to find 
three makes in one revolver. The Filipinos have swords 
of all sorts, most of them taken from the Spaniards. They 
do not value them very highly ; it is easy to get them. 
Spanish ofiScers of high and low degree are surrendering 
almost every day in this or some other province. One of 
our party bought a fine Toledo sword for $10 Mexican, 
$4.45 in our money. 

The exhibition of arms over, the daughter of the house 
comes in and plays the piano. It is a very dry, cracked, 
tinpan-toned old piano, but she manages to get a lot of 
music out of it. She has had good instruction, and has a 
fine, natural touch. One of the Americans is an artist, 
and he starts to make a sketch of her as she plays. Im- 
mediately she jumps up and runs away. Then there is a 
long argument, in which all the rest of the household try 
to persuade her to sit for her picture. At last she goes 
into an inside room with the other women, and with much 
laughter and talk is arrayed in a great flowing skirt of 
soft red material like crepe, with a pina cloth waist, the 
sleeves of which flare out more than those in style at home 
two years ago. This pina cloth is made of the fibre of 
pineapple leaves, and is very fine and gauzy. Her hair, 
which was hanging in a heavy, black mass down her back, 
she has tied up in a Psyche knot, and, if she only knew 
it, she is not nearly so picturesque as she was in the one- 
piece contrivance she wore at first, with her waving hair. 

Somebody brings out a flask of cocktails, mixed in San- 
Francisco and more precious than fine gold. The Gen- 
eral, Colonel Cailles and the rest taste it politely, but do not 
drink. It is so everywhere. The Filipinos have no appe- 
tite for our liquor. They skirmish about and find some 



1X2 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

aguardiente and aniseed brandy for us. But we want no 
more of that than they do of our cocktails. 

At last soup is served — a thick broth with native-made 
spaghetti and a liberal flavouring of garlic. Coffee goes 
with it ; good coffee and well made. After soup, cigars, 
cigarettes and betel nut to chew. We sit at the table for a 
few minutes, and at last it dawns on us that there is no 
other course. Soup was the entire meal, and we get up, 
rather guiltily, afraid we have shown that we expected 
more than FilijDino hospitality had prepared. Only the 
men sat at the table. The women either served or stood 
about in the room and looked on. The dining-room was 
detached from the main room, where the piano was, and 
connected by a narrow hall-like passage. The floor was of 
narrow strips of bamboo, fine and cool. 

Now surely we shall start for the front, but first the 
sketch of the young lady of the house must be exhibited 
all around for general approval. From the artistic point 
of view it is very clever. It has caught the spirit and ac- 
tion capitally, and is a very good likeness. But the Filipinos 
take it line by line. There is too much embonpoint, not 
enough shading in the hair, forehead too high here, not 
high enough there, nose too sharp, ear too small, even a 
defect in the window that showed behind the girl. The 
poor artist sat in dismay, unable to explain how true the 
effect was, and the girl laughed heartily at him. 

The picture examined, criticised, and put away in the 
artist's portfolio, more cigars and cigarettes passed around, 
and we begin to get into our rain coats and strap on re- 
volvers and canteens again. At last it surely is time to 
start for the front. But hold on, there is something else. 
We have heard that the Filipinos are gi*eat cockfighters. 
Every man or boy has his gamecock and is ready to bet 
his last centime and his hope of salvation on its prowess. 
Already the General has sent out to get the best cocks in 
Paraiiaque, and we must not think of going on until we 
have seen a battle. At last the men come in with the 
cocks, half a dozen of them. Some one produces a case of 
gaffs, villainous-looking little blades shaped like swords 
and razor sharp. They bind the gaff on the cock's left leg 
so that it sticks straight out behind. Then they tease the 
cocks until they are thoroughly angry and let them go. 



GOING TO THE FRONT UNDER DIFFICULTIES II 3 

One of the two prepared for our amusement was a big, 
ungainly white fellow with long, featherless legs. The 
Filipinos said he was a Filipino, but the brown, agile- 
looking one was a Spaniard. As the cocks were thrown 
into the street in front of the house for lack of a better 
pit, some of the backers of the Filipino began to offer bets, 
but there Avere no takers. The Filipino was well chosen. 
The fight lasted less than half a minute and the brown 
Spaniard lay dead on the ground. He had four terrible 
cuts, any of them mortal, but the Filipino bore only two 
slight scratches to show that he had done battle. Living 
and dead were both exhibited and then at last we made a 
start for the front. 

The jolting carromatta took us over three and a half 
miles of road full of mud and ruts. One minute it was 
slam bang up against one side of the cart, and the next it 
was hang on or be pitched out bodily over driver, pony, 
and all. The driver, smiling and cheerful through it all, 
squatted on his heels on a board that was fastened to the 
shafts, just in front of the body of the cart. There he 
balanced like a slack- wire performer and grinned at the 
wildest jumps of the carromatta, and all the time he shouted 
at and urged his pony to yet more vigorous efforts. The 
tough little beast was plunging forward regardless of the 
condition of the road. The country was even and flat, but 
a few feet above the sea. The road runs practically par- 
allel with the beach between it and the Paraiiaque Eiver. 
To the west, the land between the road and the beach is 
a little higher than on the east of the road, of a sandy 
character, and fairly good campmg ground. There some 
of the California men are to make camp in a few days, and 
probably a large part of the second and third expeditions, 
when they arrive. The road is lined on both sides with a 
thick row of bamboos — heavy bamboos with long, tough 
thorns, very sharp and stiff. To the east there are rice 
fields and bean patches and thick scrub and bamboo — 
country almost absolutely impassable for our soldiers. 
Only men accustomed to it, as are the Filipinos, who 
know every twist and turn, and can stand heat, rain, wind, 
and humidity with equal indifference, can get about in it 
with any sort of certainty, speed or ease. As we drive 
along we pass several natives at work in the paddy fields. 
8 



114 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Here is one ploughing with a great blue bull Nilghai. 
Just beyond one has a swinging scoop, and is throwing 
water from a ditch over a dike, scooping it up a shovelful 
at a time and jerking it out of the open-ended bucket with 
a sudden dexterous wrist twist. Along the road runs a 
line of green bamboo poles, four or five inches in diame- 
ter, carrying a single telegraph wire. The Filipinos have 
arranged telegraphic communication with field head- 
quarters. 

Three miles north of Paranaque is Malabai, half a dozen 
native huts gathered in a group. All along the road the 
houses stand but a few rods apart, sometimes so close to 
the road that the indwellers could almost touch travellers 
from the windows. At frequent intervals there are little 
shelters, or rest houses, just a thatched roof and a bamboo 
floor, a couple of feet above the ground. Nobody stays on 
the ground in this country any longer than he can help, 
not even the natives. At Malabai there is a sort of market, 
Natives, men, wom.en, boys and girls, are squatting in the 
streets in front of the houses or in the windows with big 
flat bamboo baskets full of mangoes, bananas, pineapples, 
rice, sugar, cigars and cigarettes and a dozen other things 
for sale. All along there are big round crates full of 
chickens, women with big baskets of eggs, fish of several 
kinds curious to American eyes, little flat fellows with 
staring eyes and big round scales, spotted like our sunfish. 
Two or three fellows have ollas, earthenware pots or jars 
for keeping water comparatively cool by evaporation 
through their porous sides, with all sorts of other pots, 
some for chocolate, others for tea, coffee pots, lemonade 
pots, and curious little furnaces for fish cooking. 

Just beyond this market village the road turns east, and 
half a mile brings us to Pineda, or Pasay, a considerable 
village, with what passes for a square in the middle of it 
and two or three big stone buildings about the square. In 
one of these, with a big sign declaring it to be the '^ Tri- 
bunal*' over the door, Noriel has his field headquarters. 
There we stop and the General and his Lieutenant-Colonel 
climb down from their carromatta. A great crowd gathers 
to greet us. Soldiers salute and present arms and women 
and children crowd around. They are very respectful 
and polite, but mightily interested in these Americans. 



GOING TO THE FRONT UNDER DIFFICULTIES II5 

All along the road we have been saluted by everybody ; 
even the children stood at attention as we passed. Just 
inside the door of this tribunal headquarters stands a 
Krupp six centimetre breech-loading rifle, captured from 
the Spanish in a fight below Malabai. The Filipinos have 
no ammunition for it, but they have gathered up two 
boxes full of shot that the Spaniards had fired at them, 
and are trying to make shells to carry them. The copper 
rifling bands of the shot have all been ribbed by their pas- 
sage through the gun, but the Indians are hammering 
them down into shape again. By and by they will be used 
against that old stone fort at Malate, just south of Manila, 
the last fortification that protects the city wall. 

We examine this gun and admire it, and the pluck that 
captured it, and the energy that is finding ammunition 
for it. Noriel says it is one of six, all taken at the same 
fight. They are first-class field guns. Our army would 
be much better equipped for the work in hand if it had 
several batteries of them. They are about the only guns 
tliat can be transported over this country and that are at 
the same time effective. Now that we are past the gun 
we go into ^N'orieFs office and the General blandly asks us 
if we like rice. Great Scott, is it time to eat again ? 
Fortunate for us that we started early in the morning. 
It is now long past noon, and the front is still in front. 
If we are going to see the trenches it means that we can- 
not get back before sundown, and so must stay here for 
the night, for Admiral Dewey permits no movement of 
boats about the bay after dark. JSTo one could tell what 
smuggling into Manila of provisions and supplies there 
might be but for that regulation. We admit to the Gen- 
eral with what grace we can muster that we do like rice, 
and he sends a man or two with a message to some one to 
prepare us a meal. Then cigars and cigarettes are passed 
around again, and we notice a Spanish soldier sitting on 
the edge of a bed in the corner of the room. Our inter- 
preter gets to work, and we improve the time we must 
wait for the meal. 

The Spaniard says he is Corporal Manuel Eoviroso of 
the Third Company, Thirteenth Eegiment, of the line. 
He was in the trench facing the insurgents, just beyond 
Pineda. Yesterday his officer beat him in the face, and 



Il6 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

last night he watched his chance, jumped over the breast- 
work and ran into the insurgent lines. Both sides shot at 
him, but he escaped unhurt. He had not been paid for 
months and had been half starved — he looked that — but 
he had stood it until he was beaten in the face by his officer 
in the presence of his comrades. Then he deserted. This 
Manuel Eoviroso is a well-informed young man, if his 
story contains anything of truth. He has been orderly 
for some officers in Manila, and there he has seen and read 
the despatch which told them help was coming from Spain. 
Five battalions, says Eoviroso, are in the transports, one 
from Madrid, one from Vitoria, one from Valencia, one 
from Barcelona, and one from Burgos. Each numbers 
1,054 men, under a Lieutenant-Colonel. They are in the 
transj)orts Antonio Lopez, City of Cadiz, Buenos Ayres 
and Montevideo, and are convoyed by the battleship Pelayo, 
the armoured cruiser Carlos V., two other cruisers, 
two torjDcdo boats and two destroyers. There is great re- 
joicing in Manila because these ships and soldiers are 
coming, and great determination to hold out until they 
arrive. 

But Manila is in a hard way. There is no meat but 
horseflesh and a little buffalo bull beef. One cannot buy 
a mango for love or money, and bananas are twenty-four 
cents apiece. Flour is almost gone, and rice will hold out 
not more than a month. The rich get along well. It costs 
them a great deal, but then they can afford that, and they 
live on the best and keep fat. But the poor soldiers, with 
no money and only rice to eat, have a hard time. And 
they must stand and sleep by their guns. They are on 
duty all the time, for there is no telling when the Filipinos 
or the Americans will attack. 

And now this Corporal who deserted reveals the best of 
his story. If we only knew whether it is true or not. 
Alemanes, he says, the G-ermans, and the interpreter is all 
attention. He has been at the wharf and with his own 
eyes seen the Germans land 300 bags of flour in one day. 
His comrades have told him that they have seen the Ger- 
mans land two big guns, all wrapped up and packed in 
cases like furniture. He has seen German officers in the 
trenches talking with Spanish officers, but was not close 
enough to hear what was said. He was in the infantry 



GOING TO THE FRONT UNDER DIFFICULTIES 11/ 

and does not know whether Germans have given instruc- 
tion to artillerymen or not. He has heard that they 
have. 

It is the Archbishop who is really at the bottom of the 
Spanish resistance. On that day when the Americans 
destroyed the Spanish fleet, Captain-General Augustin 
caused the white flag to be raised over Manila. This 
Roviroso and his fellow-soldiers were ordered to be ready 
to march out and surrender. All day they were ready 
and the white flag flew, but the Americans did not come. 
That night Senor Don Fermin Jaudenes, segundo cabo, 
deposed Captain-General Augustin and assumed command. 
The white flag was hauled down and the red and yellow of 
Castile run up again. It was the Archbishop who brought 
this about — that same Archbishop who, in April, pro- 
claimed that the Americans were ravishers and plunderers, 
whose sole object in attacking Manila was to loot, outrage 
and destroy. When Jaudenes took command the order to 
be ready to surrender was rescinded, and resistance began 
in earnest. Now it is desperate. Buildings have been 
saturated with oil ready for the torch. Parapets have 
been thrown up and guns mounted outside the wall and 
on the wall. Dynamite has been laid in the streets up 
which the Americans will have to march if they take the 
city. Buildings have been destroyed to give better chance 
to resist landing parties. When Manila is taken it will be 
a city of bones and ashes. The Spaniards will die resisting 
and their city shall never surrender. 

How much of this is true there is no telling. From 
several different sources the oiled-buildings story has 
come. Natives who escape tell it. xis for the dynamite, 
that is a case of marching Spanish prisoners ahead of, and 
with, our troops and let the Spaniards kill their comrades 
if they will. It is true that Jaudenes deposed Augustin 
and assumed command. It is true that the white flag was 
up for hours. It is true that the food supply is almost 
exhausted. It is true that as the Spaniards retreat before 
the insurgents they burn what they can. As to the Ger- 
mans, they have annoyed Admiral Dewey in every way 
they could, as has been told before, but it seems hardly 
likely that they would go so far as to land guns. That is 
making war, and Admiral Dewey has told the German 



Il8 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Flag Lieutenant that the way to make war is to clear ship 
and go at it. 

Still we are not at the fronts but there is a distinct 
advance. We have come three and a half miles from Pa- 
ranaque, and that rice is ready. We walk through half of 
Pasay and find the house. It is much like the one in 
Parafiaque — all of them are, for that matter — but not so 
large. We have not long to wait here. The table is set 
at once upon our arrival, and again the men sit down and 
the women wait and watch. At one end of the table sev- 
eral platters heaped with pieces of meat are set. The 
plates are passed to the platters. A woman picks up a 
piece of meat with her fingers and puts it on a plate and 
starts it back up the line to its owner. Eice she scoops 
out of a big platter with a spoon. Before each man there 
is a small bowl with a few spoonfuls of salted and pep- 
pered cocoanut oil as dressing for the rice. The meat 
reeks of garlic, but we eat it as fast as we can, for we are 
in a hurry to get to the front, and the sun is slanting on 
the far side of Cavite, well west of us. The meat is fresh 
killed and tough, but it is beef and nourishing. Then 
comes a plate of liver and garlic and more rice. And then 
a plate of fried chicken, with only a suggestion of garlic 
this time. If this keeps up we shall all be Italians before 
we get Manila. After the chicken mangoes — how good 
they are — and bananas, and a curious thick-skinned fruit 
like an apple with a terrible Togalog — native — name. 

Cigarettes, cigars and betel nut, and — there goes a 
bugle. We go to the windows and see a lot of barefooted 
soldiers stringing along Indian fashion to a big thatched 
roof shed just across the narrow alley-like street. Every 
other man carries a big banana leaf. He is using it as an 
umbrella, and we wonder why all do not have them. The 
soldiers are going to have a meal, says ISToriel, and we must 
see them. So to the shed we go. Then it appears that 
this shed really shelters a cockpit. Can it be that we are 
to have another cockfight ? We begin to wonder if there 
is any front anyway, or any fighting, or any war. But 
the soldiers are getting their rice. It has been cooking 
for them in great earthenware receptacles shaped like the 
flat, broad fruit baskets the native women carry. The 
soldiers with banana leaves divide them and give half of 



GOING TO THE FRONT UNDER DIFFICULTIES II9 

each one to the soldiers who came without them. Each 
man slings his gun over his shoulder, takes off his straw 
hat, lines the crown with the banana leaf and scoops it 
full from the big pot, using his hands as spoons. Then, 
holding the hat with one hand, he walks about scooping 
rice into his mouth with the other hand. They laugh 
and talk and are perfectly contented. It will be hard 
work to subdue men like them. God send we don^t have 
it to do ! 

Now at last we make a move that has some promise in 
it. We go back to the " tribunal," where our carromattas 
are waiting. We are about to get into the ramshackle 
liver regulators when, bless my soul ! we get a surprise. 
Noriel says we are at the front. For a minute or two that 
fairly takes our breath away, then we recover, and argu- 
ment begins. It develops that there is a front much 
more warlike than this peaceful tribunal headquarters, 
with its silent Krupp gun. There are trenches with men 
in them armed with rifles — Mausers, mostly taken from 
the Spanish — and they are waiting patiently for the chance 
to shoot or capture more Spaniards. Moreover, the Span- 
iards have trenches not far from those occupied by the 
insurgents, and they are shooting all the time. It is very 
dangerous to go near the fighting lines, and the General 
doesn't like to have the Americans try it. We ask for 
figures of Filipino losses in the trenches, and the General 
becomes rather reticent. Shooting there certainly is, as 
we can hear the rifles cracking all the time. And here 
comes a boy shot through the left hand. He was nearly 
half a mile behind the insurgent lines, walking down the 
road toward home when the bullet hit him. He exhibits 
the hand rather proudly, and when everybody has exam- 
ined it, goes into the tribunal to find the doctor and have 
it dressed. He is perhaps fifteen years old, but a veteran. 

This evidence of danger makes some of the party a little 
shy, but most of us are for going forward. We have come 
a long distance, been jolted a lot and eaten a great deal of 
garlic, and we are entitled to some recompense. We have 
come to see the fighting line. There is a fighting line, 
and now we want to see it. At last Noriel agrees, and 
away we go with ponies thoroughly refreshed by the long 
rest. Back to the Camino Real, the main highway, we 



I20 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

go and turn north. Now we begin to notice that the tops 
of the Damboos are broken down. Closer inspection shows 
that they have been shot through. The Filipino driver 
says that is the work of the Spanish. ^' Alto," he says, 
the Spaniards always shoot high. That is why it is more 
dangerous behind the trenches than in them. As we go 
along more and more treetops are broken down, and oc- 
casionally there is the mark of a bullet not far above the 
ground. These are mostly the work of spent bullets, fall- 
ing after a long flight through the air. 

Half a mile of this road brings us to a little clump of 
native huts, where a narrow trail crosses theCamiiio, running 
east and west. Here we halt and get down from the hygienic 
transports. A barricade blocks the far side of the cross 
road. Behind it a ditch has been dug, and close behind 
the ditch stand two gigantic old 8-inch, smooth bore can- 
non that Admiral Dewey gave Aguinaldo when he took 
the Cavite navy yard. They had been mounted in the old 
tumble-down fort at the tip end of Cavite Point. With in- 
finite labour, pains, and patience the insurgents had hauled 
them out of the fort, dragged them aboard scows, towed 
them across to Paranaque, got them ashore and dragged and 
pushed them over that three and a half miles of terrible 
road. Now they were stopped by their own ditch. But 
the fighting line had gone forward a few hundred yards 
and maiiana the smooth bores would go too. 

As we had come along we had met or passed many men 
coming from or going to the trenches. All carried rifles 
or cartridge belts or boxes. There was no system or or- 
ganisation about it. Apparently they came from the front 
or went to it as they liked, and they marched like the old 
woman^s geese, two alone and one together. When a 
man in the trench got tired or hungry he went home and 
slept or ate. When he was rested or fed he went back to 
the trench. The whole country is in arms. Every native 
is an insurgent, and so are all his relatives, particularly 
his sons. There is no regular organisation, but there are 
so many flghting men that there are always soldiers enough 
in the trenches. When we halted at the barricade where 
the big guns were these men were marching by us both 
ways. They saluted and went on, paying no attention to 
what was going on there, and entirely unconcerned about 



GOING TO THE FRONT UNDER DIFFICULTIES 121 

the Spanish shooting. Somewhere ahead we knew there 
was a Spanish trench, for the rifles were cracking all the 
time., and occasionally we heard the sing of a bullet over 
our heads, or a bamboo twig was cut and fell down near us. 

Now Noriel refused to go further or to let us go. It 
was very dangerous, he said, and it would never do to 
have one of the Americans get hurt. It might make 
trouble for Aguinaldo with the American commanders. 
But the Filipinos were going in and coming out without 
the least concern, and some of us insisted that we could 
go too. Besides, the risk was entirely our own, and there 
could not possibly be any trouble if we got hurt through 
our own recklessness. At last the General said we might 
go on on our own hook, but he would not be responsible for 
the result. , He himself would remain behind. Lieutenant 
Colonel Cailles said he would stay too. He looked very 
serious and shook his head ominously. At last five of us 
started. We marched straight up the road, and a couple 
of Filipinos went along, too. About 500 yards in front of 
the barricade that stopped the guns was another one, 
which completely blocked off the view of the country be- 
yond. To the left of this barricade the country was com- 
paratively open, and we could see a black line where the 
insurgents^ breastwork ran down to the beach. When we 
were half way between the two barricades there was a roar 
of rifles somewhere in front and to the left. One of the 
Filipinos grinned. The Spaniards had fired a volley. 
Half a minute later there was the whistle of bullets over 
our heads, and some twigs came down from the tops of 
the bamboos along the road. In a second or two came the 
report of another volley. We marched along pretty lively, 
but before we reached the barricade another volley was 
fired, harmless as the first two. 

Behind this barricade to which we now came were fif- 
teen or twenty Filipinos. As we came up they scrambled 
out in line, and some one said. " Present arms ! " In 
first-rate order and with nice precision the command was 
executed, but the appearance of the soldiers was enough 
to make a clown laugh. Some were tall and some were 
short, some were grey-headed and some were boys not as 
long as the guns they carried. Some wore white shirts 
and blue trousers, some Vt^ore blue shirts and white 



122 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

trousers. There were combinations of white and red, bine 
and red, brown, white, red, blue and striped. Some 
wore straw hats, some white caps, some black derby hats, 
and some had no hats at all. The only thing that all 
had was bare feet. I^ot a man had boots except the offi- 
cer who commanded them to salute, and that was the only 
distinguishing feature of his uniform. The barricade 
where they had been resting was composed of two thatched 
huts set in the road, with a breastwork thrown up in front 
of them. Pieces of thin bamboo, interlaced to form a 
mat, had been set upon edge, backed by bamboo poles. 
They made two parallel fences five feet high and about 
four feet apart clear across the road. Between them dirt 
had been piled and packed down. It settled harder with 
every rain and made a first-rate earthwork. Behind the 
two houses thatches had been put up, and under these 
the Filipinos squatted on benches or sat on their heels 
and ate roasted corn or chewed sugarcane. 

At last we were at the front. Nearly the whole day 
had been put in getting there, and it was far too late to 
think of getting back to Cavite that night. The Spaniards 
had tired of volley firing and were taking a siesta or 
some other kind of a rest behind their trench. It was 
thoroughly peaceful. From the barricade a good-sized 
trench ran west*a hundred yards across an open field of 
fairly high ground. The trench was about three and a 
half feet wide, and, as I have learned since, four feet deep ; 
but then there was so much water in it that it was impos- 
sible to tell its depth. The dirt had been thrown out in 
front of the trench, forming a very good breastwork, at 
intervals pieces of nipa thatch were thrown over the trench, 
one edge resting on the breastwork and the other sup- 
ported by short stakes set up behind the trench. Wherever 
the trench was thus roofed, stools, chairs and benches 
were gathered for the comfort of the soldiers. In one 
place a bed had been set up under the roof, a good 
place for a tired man to sleep, but in rather an awk- 
ward position for use as a field hospital. A hundred 
yards from the road the field was divided by a thick row of 
bamboos. Then there was another field similar to the 
first with just such another trench. The edge of this 
second field was almost at the beach line. Bamboos were 




ICxORROTE BOWMEN. 



GOING TO THE FRONT UNDER DIFFICULTIES 1 23 

thick there. The trench continued to the water's edge. 
On the sandy beach old boats had been filled with dirt 
and sand and piled up to make a formidable work. This 
was the most dangerous place along the trench, for the 
beach was clear all the way to the Spanish work about 
400 yards away, and in plain sight of the men behind 
the insurgent work. As we stood behind the barricade 
in the road wondering when the row would begin again 
the Filipinos were walking up and down with absolute 
unconcern behind their trench. Spaniards might shoot if 
they pleased, these fellows didn't care. In front of the 
trench about forty yards ran a line of bamboos, very 
thick at the west end, but thinned out a great deal 
near the Oamino. Why Noriel did not dig his trench at 
that line of bamboos in the first place there was no ex- 
planation. Why he did not advance it there any night 
was similarly unexplained. The bamboos afforded excel- 
lent cover for either side, and the only reason apparent 
why the Spaniards did not crawl up to them in the night 
and take the insurgents unaware at daylight is that 
the Spanish do not fight in that way. The trench could 
not have stood one good determined rush, and it was fine 
country for such work. It could not have resisted our 
men one day. 

Behind the insurgent trench there were perhaps eighty 
men and boys with guns. Some were going away and 
others were coming in all the time, so that the number 
remained approximately constant. All were completely in- 
different to the Spanish fire. Sometimes it came in volleys 
sometimes in single shots, but always high. The treetops 
were the only sufferers. The Filipinos said that the 
Spaniards were afraid to stand up in their trenches and ex- 
pose themselves enough to take an aim that would send 
their bullets anywhere near parallel with the earth. Cer- 
tainly their shooting was all high. Their trench did not run 
parallel with the insurgent line. It started about 400 yards 
away at the beach, ran back at a slightly divergent angle 
a little more than half way to the road, where there seemed 
to be some sort of a square breastwork thrown up like a 
miniature fort. From this fort the line ran back with 
the road about seventy-five yards and then turned to the 
northeast and ended with the Spanish left on the road. 



124 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Behind tlieir trench and close to the road the insurgents 
had built a battery of bamboo and dirt for their two big 
smoothbores. They had a lot of villainous grapeshots 
with which they were going to open upon the Spanish 
fort-like breastwork when everything was ready. We 
asked when that would be and they replied ^^Maiiana." 
The Filipinos are wonderfully energetic compared with 
the Spaniards, but the mafiana habit is firmly fixed on 
them, and we concluded not to wait. Two days later I 
went back again and saw the guns moved into place. 
Last Sunday night they opened up. Whether the grape- 
shot did the work or whether the noise was more potent 
and terrifying I do not know, but the Sjoaniards retreated 
made a little stand at a trench half way to Malate and 
then ran back into the last ditch before Malate. And 
Malate is the last post in front of Manila on the south. 

After we had examined the battery and the trench near 
the road we walked along behind the trench to the little 
group of huts at the line near the beach. As we went 
down the line the Filipinos fell in in squads of from one to 
eleven and presented arms. It reminded one of the old 
Continentals who stood in their ragged regimentals flinch- 
ing not. Beyond this cluster of huts the Filipinos said 
was the danger zone. They made signs to us to get down 
behind the breastwork and crawl down to the beach. 
They set the example and we followed it. From behind 
their old dirt-filled boats we had a good view of the Span- 
ish work. The Spaniards kept well under cover. They 
had learned that precaution from experience, for when 
the Filipinos do shoot they try to hit, and they sometimes 
succeed. Ammunition is too difficult for them to get to 
be lightly wasted. We squatted there for ten or fiteen 
minutes and the glasses failed to reveal any movement 
behind the Spanish line. Then eight or ten of them sent 
us a warning to keep on lying low. It was entirely un- 
expected and quite unseen. I was watching the line 
closely with good glasses, but saw no indication of the fire. 
Smokeless powder is difficult to detect on a rainy day. 
The bullets went very high, for we did not hear them 
whistle, and for once the treetops escaped. I looked back 
when the report reached us and saw that four or five of 
the Filipinos who had got tired of squatting down were 



GOING TO THE FRONT UNDER DIFFICULTIES 1 2$ 

standing up. They laughed when I looked around, and 
one said '^ alto, alto,^* high, too high. Yes, indeed, much 
too high. [Nowhere near close enough to make a Eilipino 
duck. 

It was getting well on toward dusk when we left the 
trench and started back. There was only one place we 
had not examined, and only N'orieFs urgency kept us from 
that. It could not be made to seem to us that such fire 
as the Spanish was dangerous. Just beyond the line of 
bamboos that crossed the field in front of the insurgent 
trench stood the shell of a big, white, iron-roofed house, 
which looked as if it might have been a place to dry to- 
bacco or a barrack. It had been riddled with the bullets 
of both sides, but it offered such a fine view of the Spanish 
work that some of us wanted to sneak up to it and have a 
look. The best view of the Spaniards we had had, except 
that on the beach, had been from the top of the battery 
for the smooth bores. There the bamboo was a little 
thinner than further down toward the beach, and the 
glasses brought the Spanish line out fairly clear, but not 
with such distinctness as was desirable. But N^oriel, who 
had come up to the front by this time, said it was too dan- 
gerous for us to go to the house, and so we turned back. 
As we walked down the road to the barricade, where we 
had left the caromattas, the Spaniards sent a volley after 
us that still further crippled the poor treetops, but hurt 
nobody. 

When we got back to Parafiaque it was almost dark, and 
we went to the house where we had had soup to stop for 
the night. Supper was something of a repetition of the 
dinner at Pasay, but it added dulce de cocoa, and great is 
the fame of dtilce de cocoa throughout this land. It is 
made of fine shreds of cocoanut boiled in sugarcane syrup 
until it is about the consistency of marmalade. And now 
that the commissary^'s store has sold all its blackberry jam 
there is a great cry for didce de cocoa. ISToriel said they 
made it in a province four days from here, and if the sup- 
ply he ordered for us is not delivered very soon we are 
going to ask Admiral Dewey and General Anderson to send 
out a scouting party to bring it in. That night we slept 
on the floor all in one room, each with a sleeping mat and 
two pillows, one for his head and one to put between his 



126 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

knees. Noriel turned in with the rest of us, but young 
Captain Guzman sat up and sparked the daughter of the 
house. They sat in the room where we were all trying to 
sleep, and talked in ordinary tones, and it was after mid- 
night before we could get sufficiently used to it to sleep. 
The girl was stirring about at 4 o^'clock, and I don't 
know whether she sat up all night or does not require 
much sleep. For breakfast they gave us rice boiled until 
it was a gummy gelatinous mass. They eat it with sugar 
and shredded cocoanut, but Americans would use it with 
grape and canister to clear roads or stop charges. 

In all the time the Americans have been here, or rather 
in all the time the revolution has been going on, for 
Aguinaldo came two weeks or more after Dewey's victory, 
this was the first time that Americans had been up to the 
insurgent fighting line since the Spaniards had been driven 
from Cavite Viejo, below Bakor. It was in consideration 
of this that when we got ready to start back from Para- 
iiaque. General Noriel gave each of us a Spanish flag, taken 
somewhere along the road as the Spaniards surrendered or 
fled. Mine was taken at Paranaque. 

General Anderson was glad to get our report, and the 
next day he sent Lieutenant McCain, brigade Adjutant, to 
make further examination of the country about Pasay. 
Lieutenant Calkins, navigator of the Olympia, and I went 
along. This time we did not delay with Noriel and 
Filipino hospitality, but went straight to the front. We 
found Lieutenant-Colonel Cailles getting the smoothbores 
into the battery, and as we started back he asked us to report 
to Aguinaldo that the guns were in position at 1: 30 that 
afternoon. This day we turned off from the Camino Real 
at the first barricade and went into the country, following 
the trenches around Manila. The trenches are not con- 
tinuous, but really a series of detached outworks from a 
quarter to half a mile apart. Usually they are simply 
barricades across footpaths or little roadways that lead 
through a country elsewhere impassable. As we sat down 
to rest at each breastwork the Filipinos told us that they 
had another still further on. Each time the Spaniards 
were in view behind their barricades, which always faced 
the insurgent Avorks at from 150 to 300 yards. All day 
there was desultory firing, and once or twice it was pretty 



"THREE ROUNDS BLANK** \2J 

close. There was one place where a Spaniard had crawled 
up from his line to an old stone pile not more than twenty 
yards from the left front of the insurgent works. From 
the breastwork we could see very plainly a dozen or more 
Spaniards behind their barricade, 250 yards down the 
road. They were standing up, moving about and smok- 
ing. We stood up to look at them and the fellow behind 
the stone pile let go at us. We ducked lively, but of 
course it was long after the bullet had gone by. If the 
beggar had had nerve enough to stand up and take aim 
he could have drilled us, sure. There was thick shrubbery 
between him and us and he had good cover, but he 
wouldn't risk it. After that sixty Filipinos waited all 
day for him to show his head. But he didn't show it. 
That was the last outpost we saw, but they extend clear 
around the city. In character they are all much like the 
first and the fighting at all is the same. Once in a while 
the insurgents fire a rifle. The Spaniards reply with vol- 
leys and it sounds like a terrific battle. But nobody is 
hurt. However, the insurgents can fight like devils and 
sometimes they do. 



CHAPTER XIX 

*^ THREE ROUKDS BLAKK '* 

Cavite", July 27. — The quavering wail of a fife ! Curi- 
ous time for a man to be playing a fife. One o'clock in the 
afternoon. It*s coming down the navy yard street, and 
other instruments are with it. Odd for a band to be out 
now, with the rain pouring down as if Cavite were the 
cistern for all the gutter pipes of the heavens. They come 
nearer, and the tune rises to the point of recognisability. 
Now it is plain. They're playing the funeral march. 
Some poor fellow has answered his last roll call, and they 
are going to bury him in the new national cemetery over 
on the desolate sand spit on Point Sanglei. 

Down the street comes the little procession, to the slow 
time of the mournful march, and heads for the dock where 



128 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

lies the gunboat Leyte, waiting to carry the body and the 
funeral party across to the burial place. The sullen sky 
hangs just over the treetops and sends down its unceasing 
flood upon the sodden ground, which refuses to soak up 
more and turns it off in rivulets to the sea. For three 
full days it has rained this way, and the earth is sick with 
the deluge. 

At the dock the band halts. The musicians are wet 
through now, and it is not wise to send more men than 
are necessary over to the grove to risk themselves in the 
terrific rain. They stand there playing the march, and 
the sobbing tune rises and falls as the little funeral party 
goes by to the ship. A new flag covers the body, its bright 
red and blue in sharp contrast with the grey, leaden day. 
Behind the body march the dead man^s comrades, the 
members of his company. At the ship^s side they halt. 
The body is taken aboard. Washed-out wreaths of flowers 
lie on the dripping flag. The Captain is in his blue 
uniform with white gloves. His sword swings by his side. 

'' Two squads from the left for the flring party, ^^ he 
says. 

The two squads fall out and climb aboard the little 
steamer. The rest fall in behind the silent band and 
march back to their quarters. 

The rain drives down with undiminished force. It 
carries through under the awning over the quarterdeck 
and splashes against the soaked flag and bedraggled 
flowers. The chaplain climbs aboard with the Captain 
and the bugler, and away the Leyte goes. Under the 
dreary sky, in the pelting rain, the little procession, much 
smaller now than at the start, forms again on the pier by 
the cemetery, the Captain, the chaplain and the bugler, 
the body under its new flag, bright as if snapping in the 
breeze and the gay sunlight at the head of its company 
swinging into battle, then the flring party. The last 
mournful march is soon ended, and by the open grave the 
chaplain bares his head to the sweeping storm. 

^' I am the resurrection and the life. . . . Man that is 
born of woman hath but a short time to live. . . . for 
they rest from their labours. Earth to earth, dust to dust, 
ashes to ashes." 

Slowly the body is lowered into the new-made grave, still 



CONCERNING THE GERMANS 1 29 

under the beautiful flag. The firing squads fall in. With 
one impulse the fingers move the triggers, repeat, and fire 
again. '' Three rounds blank/^ the salute to death. The 
bareheaded musician lifts his bugle to his lips, and across 
the dismal waste of sand and over the bay to the quarters 
of his comrades there float the notes of ^^taps," the last 
call for Sergeant Watson. 

Lights out for Sergeant Watson ! On this point the 
Spaniards had their best battery. Here they made their 
best fight that glorious day when Dewey overmastered 
them. Here many a brave man died defending the sover- 
eignty this brave young American came to attack. Side 
by side they lie in the sleep that shall not be broken until 
the last great reveille summons us all to the final muster. 



CHAPTER XX 

CONCERNING THE GERMANS 

Cayite, July 17. — It is more than doubtful if the gravity 
of Admiral Dewey^s position here has been understood at 
home, or the seriousness and delicacy of the work he has 
had to do. Sitting on the quarter-deck of the flagship 
Olympia the other afternoon he pointed out toward the 
wrecks of the Eeina Cristina, Castilla, ai^d Ulloa, lying 
awash ofl Point Sanglei, and said : 

'^The little fight out there was one of the least difficult 
things I have had to do here.'' 

Then he looked over at the four or five German warships 
lying close in to Manila and said : 

'^ Before I left Washington to come out here they 
promised me that if there was any trouble I should have 
the Oregon. I wish she were here now. 

" We shall be glad enough to see the Monterey," he 
added, after a minute. " I warrant she will get a cheering 
when she comes in." 

It needs no soothsayer to interpret all this. The plain 
fact is that the Germans have been making the Admiral 
all the trouble they can. They have been going just as 
9 



I30 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

far as it was safe to go in annoying him, and several times 
they have made him talk of war. He has not hesitated to 
use plain language when the occasion required it. But 
two or three times when he has talked that way he would 
have felt a great deal better if he had an armourclad or two 
and some big guns to back him up. 

The Admiral^s position has been most difficult. His 
victory on Mayday was so striking that the impression at 
home has seemed to be that Dewey can do anything he 
wants to do, and there apparently is not a full realisation 
of what the situation has been here. The Americans are 
at the gates of a walled and fortified city. The ships are 
able to batter down the fortifications when there are 
troops enough to hold the reduced city. At present there 
are here fewer than 2,500 soldiers, not enough to protect 
themselves, to say nothing of holding a city whose popula- 
tion is more than 300,000. More troops are on the way, 
but until the third expedition arrives there will not 
be force enough here to justify taking Manila. In the 
meantime the Spanish have started an expedition for 
the relief of the beleaguered city. The expedition had 
been held up at Port Said, according to the last in- 
formation Dewey received from Hong Kong. That 
was late in June, and since then there has been no 
news. 

The Admiral frankly says that if that expedition comes 
on and gets here before the Monterey and Monadnock it 
may be necessary for the fleet and the troops to get out of 
Manila Bay. It was that situation which caused General 
Anderson to delay in unloading the stores from the trans- 
ports for a few days after the first brigade arrived here. 
But all the time that the Admiral has had this question to 
consider the G-ermans have been active in their annoy- 
ances. It has almost seemed at times as if they meant 
deliberately to provoke war. 

The trouble began several weeks ago, almost as soon as 
the first German ship got here. Every ship the Germans 
have on the Asiatic station except two has been here all 
or part of the time, and the great part of the squadron is 
here constantly. Prince Henry is on the Deutschland, 
and that keeps the armourclad well out of the danger zone. 
Admiral Von Diederichs's Flag Lieutenant put it recently: 



CONCERNING THE GERMANS I3I 

" If we only did not have the Prince. But he must be 
taken care of all the time." 

The Kaiser, the sister ship of the Deutschland, is Von 
Diederichs's flagship. She is a 7, 700-ton vessel with a com- 
plete belt of 10-inch armour and eight 10-inch guns, one 8- 
inch, and seven 6-inch. Besides the Kaiser there are out 
here the Gefion and the Kaiserin Augusta, which New 
Yorkers may remember from her visit there in 1893 ; the 
Irene, the Princess Wilhelm, and the Cormoran. 

These fellows have seemed to take special delight in 
violating naval proprieties and disregarding Admiral 
Dewey's regulations. Instead of establishing his blockade 
at the entrance to the bay, Dewey drew the imaginary line 
across from Cavite to Malabon. That gave foreign war- 
ships the right to come into the bay to observe operations. 
Several nations have sent ships here. The British usually 
have two or three, the Prench two, the Japanese one or 
two, and the Austrians have one now ; but Germany sent 
nearly her entire squadron. 

Admiral Dewey had ordered that there should be no 
movement of ships or boats about the bay at niglit with- 
out his knowledge and permission. That was necessary to 
an effective blockade, and in order to be legal, a blockade 
must be effective. The Germans began at once to disre- 
gard the regulation. They sent launches about after sun- 
down as if there had been no such regulations. The 
launches were stopped by our patrol boats and some of 
them were turned back. The result was friction between 
the two Admirals. Von Diederichs protested. Dewey re- 
plied that his regulation must be observed. 

The Germans kept up their work and Dewey's ships have 
watched the Germans at night with their searchlights. It 
is particularly offensive to one warship to be the target of 
another's searchlight, but that has happened to the Ger- 
mans several times as the wheeling American lights ex- 
amined the bay to see what was going on. Von Diederichs 
did not like it. Dewey sent word that he regretted the 
necessity of such work, but he was compelled to keep in- 
formed of what went on in the bay at night. He inti- 
mated that the Germans were acting as if they thought 
that they were blockading Manila instead of the Ameri- 
cans. 



132 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

The Germans have been making great nse of the Bay of 
Mariveles, opposite Corregidor Island. Nearly all the time 
they have a ship or two there, and they come and go be- 
tween there and the anchorage off Manila constantly. 
Every time they come in Dewey sends a launch or a larger 
vessel to meet them and find out who they are and where 
from. 

It is quite within his right as the blockader to do this, 
but Von Diederichs protested. The German Admiral 
twisted Dewey's contention and construed it as a claim of 
the right of search. The American Admiral had never 
set up claim to such a right, but he insisted that he had 
the right to know the character of every ship that came 
into the bay and its business, and that the mere fact that 
a ship flew the German flag did not prove that she was 
German, because it is recognised in international law as a 
right of any warship to fly any colours desired. 

While the discussion of the matter was going on several 
little things occurred which did not help the situation. 
One was when the troopships of the First Brigade came 
in. There were three Germans lying in Mariveles Bay 
when the transports passed by. Before they had got be- 
yond Corregidor the Kaiserin Augusta had got her anchor 
and was following. She came along slowly in the rear for 
a time, but as the transports n eared Cavite she drew along- 
side the Sydney, passed her, then came alongside the 
Australia so close that her name was plainly legible, went 
on and j)assed the Peking and then steamed up by the 
Olympia, when she broke out the American colours from 
the fore and saluted. Inasmuch as she had saluted once, 
another salute was unnecessary, and it looked as if she had 
given it merely to furnish an excuse for coming so close 
to the American ships. 

Matters kept getting worse. German launches were 
stopped and sent to their ships. Permission to move in 
the night time was refused on some occasions, and finally 
Admiral Dewey took occasion to say to the German Flag 
Lieutenant that certain things meant war and the Ger- 
mans were approaching dangerously near them. Then he 
added in substance that if the Germans w^anted war they 
could have it, now or at any other time, here or at any 
other place. 



CONCERNING THE GERMANS 1 33 

In reply ..o this Von Diederichs took a pacificatory tone 
and disavowed any intention of violating proper usages or 
the American AdmiraFs blockade regulations. 

Meantime stories kept coming to Admiral Dewey to the 
effect that the Germans were lending material assistance to 
the Spaniards. They were reported to have landed flour 
and other supplies and even to have landed guns. Their 
officers had been at the Spanish front and inspecting the 
Spanish fortifications. The Admiral heard from indispu- 
table authority that the German Consul had been told in 
the club in Manila that the Germans were landing supplies 
and that Spaniards of reputation and position were ready 
to swear that such was the fact and that the German Con- 
sul was unable to deny it. 

Then came the Subig Bay incident. The insurgents 
were attacking Isla de Grande. They had captured a 
steamer from the Spanish and they sent her down to Subig 
with men. She came back one afternoon and reported to 
Dewey that the cruiser Irene had prevented her from at- 
tacking Grande Island^ and had forced her to haul down 
her insurgent flag and raise a white one. 

Dewey sent the Ealeigh and Concord there at once. 
They went in cleared for action at 8 : 15 the next morning, 
ready for what might come, German or otherwise. As 
they went in on one side of the island, the Irene came out 
on the other at full steam. The two American ships took 
the island with 623 prisoners nearly all Spanish soldiers, 
and 600 rifles, with an immense quantity of ammunition. 
Prisoners and arms were turned over to the insurgents, the 
prisoners to be guarded for us at our expense until wanted. 

When the Irene came back the McCulloch spoke, but 
did not stop her. This brought a protest from both sides. 
Von Diederichs objected to the hauling up of his ships. 
Dewey declared that the Germans were lending aid and 
comfort to our enemies, thereby making themselves openly 
Spain's allies. He sent a message to the German Admiral, 
the substance of which was : 

*^ Is there peace or war between our countries ? If there 
is war I want to know it. If there is peace I want you to 
change your course. The way to make war is to clear up 
ship and go at it."' 

Von Diederichs replied with an apology and an explana- 



134 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

tion. He said the Irene had not interfered with the insur- 
gents, but had refused to answer signals from the insurgent 
steamer because they could not be answered without recog- 
nising the insurgent flag. 

She agreed to answer signals, however, if a white flag 
was raised on the insurgent ship. After he had thought 
about it a day or so. Von Diederichs apparently thought 
he had been too complaisant in his tone and then tried a 
different attitude. 

He wrote to Admiral Dewey the note in which he mis- 
construed Dewey's contention about the right to speak 
incoming ships, and said he would lay the matter before 
Commander-in-chief of neutral vessels now in the harbour. 
Since then Dewey has heard nothing from him, but he has 
heard what happened when Von Diederichs called on Cap- 
tain Chichester of the Immortalite, the senior ofiicer of the 
English squadron. The Englishman showed the German 
his instructions, by which he was ordered to do what 
Dewey had been contending that the G-ermans should do. 
After that Von Diederichs put a hypothetical question to 
Captain Chichester. ^' Suppose the Americans should give 
notice of their intention to bombard Manila,"' he said, 
'^ and suppose the G-ermans should interfere, what would be 
the attitude of the British ? " Captain Chichester replied 
in his softest voice : 

<i Why don't you ask Admiral Dewey ? " 

There the matter stands now. Admiral Dewey waits 
for the arrival of the armourclads and Admiral Von Die- 
derichs '^deviseth wicked imaginings." 

The searchlights have been keeping at work all night, 
and the Germans have been warned that if their launches 
move around promiscuously without Dewey's knowledge 
they will be fired on. The outcome remains to be seen. 



' CHAPTER XXI 

REIKFORCEMElfTS ARRIVE 

Cayite, Philippine Islan^ds, July 19. — The Japanese 
cruiter Matsushima had been due for three days, and it was 
expected that she would bring a lot of much-desired mail 



REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE 1 35 

from Hong Kong. So when the smoke of a steamer was 
sighted down the bay and the McCuUoch went scnrrjing 
out to meet her, everybody thought the long-looked-for 
'' Japanee " had come. But when the smoke came closer 
and there drew up around Point Sanglei the tall spars of 
a fine big merchantman, a cheer went up all along the line 
as the China, first transport of the second expedition, was 
recognised. She came in slowly, and, dipping her ensign 
to the ships of Dewey's fleet, let go her anchor near the 
Olympia. Launches and gigs and barges swarmed about 
her quickly from the warships, and there were hearty sal- 
utations and eager queries for news. The China was the 
flagship of the second squadron, with General Francis V. 
Greene in command of the expedition, on board and Cap- 
tain C. L. Hooper of the revenue cutter service as naval 
officer. She had steamed away from her consorts after 
the Boston met them at the north end of Luzon, and hur- 
ried in. The officers and men of the First Colorado and 
Utah Light Artillery were extremely glad to see Manila 
Bay, and they returned with a lung power that attested 
the hygienic benefits of a high altitude the rousing cheers 
of the bluejackets — no, they are all whitejackets now — of 
the fleet. General Greene went at once to call on Admiral 
Dewey and later came ashore to report to General Anderson. 
Preparations were begun at once for the debarkation of 
the troops. General Anderson had had all the preliminary 
arrangements made, and Major Jones, the Chief Quarter- 
master, was ready with cascos to be used as lighters. Gen- 
eral Greene reported that the other transports would be in 
the next morning, and there was no reason why the work 
should be delayed. Some of his officers came ashore that 
night, and Major J. Franklin Bell, Chief of the Office of 
Military Information, got his office assigned to him at once 
and began the removal of his luggage and supplies from 
the ship. One battalion of the First California had been 
sent into camp about three and a half miles south of Man- 
ila in the middle of the week. They were landed at Par- 
afiaque and marched up to a level stretch of comparatively 
high ground about two and a half miles toward Manila, 
where they pitched their camp. General Anderson decided 
to put all the second expedition except a few regulars and 
one battery of the Utah Artillery into the same camp with- 



136 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

out landing them in Cavite. He decided also to send the 
rest of the California men into camp at once. 

On Sunday morning the Senator, Colon, and Zealandia 
came along soon after breakfast and got a reception of 
tremendous cheers. All the troops reported a smooth, quiet 
voyage, but their health had not been so good as was that 
of the First Brigade. There had been many cases of mea- 
sles, several of pneumonia and typhoid peneumonia, and 
some of meningitis. Four deaths had occurred, three since 
leaving Honolulu. One was that of Second Lieutenant 
Jacob Lazelle, Eighteenth Regular Infantry. Lieutenant 
Lazelle had a very hard time of it with seasickness, and 
was exhausted when he got to Honolulu. He had been 
flat on his back all the way from San Francisco, and was 
completely worn out physically. He recovered a little of 
his strength in the two and a half days^ stay at the 
Hawaiian capital and professed confidence in his ability 
to stand the rest of the long voyage. But he did not 
stand the sea trip any better after leaving Honolulu, and 
nothing could be done for his relief. Then he caught the 
measles and the combination killed him. His body was 
brought on to Cavite and that Sunday afternoon he was 
buried in the old fort at Cavite Point with full military 
honours. A guard of his regiment came ashore with the 
body, and after Chaplain G-ilbert of the Second Oregon 
had read the funeral service they fired three rounds blank 
over the grave. 

" Three rounds blank and follow me, 
Thirteen rank, and follow me. 
Oh, passing the love of women, 
Follow me, follow me home." 

The second expedition had some diversion on the long 
voyage as well as the first. In some unaccountable man- 
ner — there had been no supply ship meanwhile — Hono- 
lulu found provender and liquid refreshments for them 
as she had for us of the First Brigade. She kept it np for 
two days and a half, and high on the roll of honour with 
the Second Brigade, as with the first, stand the names of 
Captain John Schaeffer and his fellow-officers of the Hawa- 
iian National Guard. Now that Hawaii has been annexed 



REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE 1 3/ 

these fellows may be expected along here any fine day, 
in a ship of their own if they can't find any other way. 

After leaving Honolulu the China headed for Guam, 
where it was thought Admiral Dewey might send a ship to 
meet them. On the morning of July 4 Wake Island was 
made out. Sixty years or so ago the American flag was 
hoisted on Wake Island, and General Greene thought that 
would be a good place for an Independence Day celebra- 
bration. So the China hove to and sent a couple of boats 
ashore while the other ships kept on. General Greene, 
Captain Bates, his Adjutant, Lieutenant-Colonel Jewett, 
Judge Advocate General, Major Bell and several officers, 
with Captain Seabury of the China, made the landing. 
The Stars and Stripes were hoisted, and a record of the 
landing, with a map and souvenirs of the occasion, was left. 
Captain Seabury took an observation and determined the 
island to be in longitude 166° 33' E. latitude 19° 11' N. It 
is merely a coral atoll, about twenty-five miles long by 
from one and a half to two wide. It rises about fifteen 
feet above the sea, and is uninhabited. There is no fresh 
water on it, and very little vegetation. There were 
signs of guano deposits. General Greene made a Fourth 
of July speech, and then the landing party returned to 
the ship. There is no landing for large boats or ships, 
as is the case with almost all such coral islands. The 
course into the central lagoon is narrow and tortuous, 
and extremely difficult to follow. AVith a high surf 
running it would be impossible to land. 

Then the ships headed on for Guam. Six days later, 
July 10, in the afternoon, they made the chief of the La- 
drone group. They steamed along down the west coast of 
the island by Agana Bay and to the harbour of San Luis 
d'Apra. There they saw only a brigantine — probably the 
Minatagawa, which was there when the first brigade stopped 
there — and a schooner, so they did not stop. Sundown 
showed Guam fading out on the horizon, and the second 
expedition was ofi on the last stretch of its 7,000-mile voy- 
age. There was hardly a ripple on the Pacific for the 
next six days, and the heat made the soldiers remember the 
stories they had read of the terrible climate of Manila and 
the Philippines. They were following the trades, and no 
breath of air relieved the terrible rays of the tropic sun. 



138 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

There was a lot of target practice on the way down from 
Honolulu, both with small arms and with the heavier guns 
of the Utah artillery. A regular target was built by the 
carpenter of the China. Occasionally the China would 
steam ahead of the other transports and drop the target 
over. Then the batteries and rifles would whale away at 
it. The Utah batteries had practice three times, the first 
time firing twenty rounds, the next forty and the third fifty. 
Eleven per cent, were hits and nearly all of the rest were 
good shots, many of them being very close. The rifle 
shooting, too, was very good. 

The experiences of the soldiers of the second expedition 
were much like those of the first. The ships were crowded, 
particularly the Senator, the smallest ship, which had the 
entire Nebraska regiment. There was in no case the sharp 
discipline necessary to make the men as comfortable as 
they could have been made. The men were not made 
to keep either their quarters or themselves clean, and the 
transports were in a wretched condition when they got 
here. I thought the Australia was a disgrace. Compared 
with a warship she was beyond description, but the Aus- 
tralia was almost a cruiser in comparison with the China. 
There was loud complaint about the rations all around, and 
on the China it extended even to the oflficers, most of whom 
signed a resolution not to pay the price agreed upon with 
the steamship company, because the food was so bad. 
The Zealandia developed an interesting situation for Dr. 
Harrell, an old New Yorker who came out as Acting As- 
sistant Surgeon, and wears U. S. on his collar. The doc- 
tor is a Democrat and he doesn't deny it. Also he pro- 
claims himself a patriot. He says he was instrumental in 
raising the New York regiment, which is known as the 
114th of Brooklyn. He declared one day on the Zealan- 
dia that ^^ John Brown's Body" was not a national air, 
and that John Brown was not a martyr but a murderer, 
who was hanged justly for his crime. Thereupon, as Dr. 
Harrell tells it, Colonel Hawkins had the regiment drawn 
up on deck and addressed them to the effect that Dr. 
Harrell was a traitor, adding that in '61 -'65 they had a great 
many such in the North. The Tenth Pennsylvania is re- 
ported to be one of the crack National Guard regiments of 
the country, but Dr. Harrell is not impressed with the dis- 



REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE 1 39 

cipline -which will permit a Colonel to go through snch a 
performance. So he replied to Colonel Hawkins : he 
says that if he were a traitor he should be court-martialled 
and shot, not publicly humiliated in such a manner before 
the regiment and without charges or a hearing. No New 
York regiment, says the doctor, would ever see such a 
thing. There the meaning and the practice of discipline 
are understood and observed. 

All day Sunday work went on rapidly in getting ready to 
land the troops and put them in camp. As usual, it was 
found that the stores had been loaded on the ships in hit- 
or-miss, helter-skelter fashion, so that it was almost im- 
possible to get at what was most needed. In one case it was 
ammunition, in another one kind of stores, in another, an- 
other. Much stuff that was not wanted had to be handled 
twice in order to get other stuff that was needed. General 
Greene went with General Anderson to inspect the camp- 
ground and get some notion of the country around it. Yes- 
terday morning cascos were sent alongside the China early, 
and the men of the First Colorado and their equipage and 
supplies were loaded on them. It took until well into the 
afternoon to get the lighters ready for their trip to the 
shore. The men took 150 rounds of ammunition, fifty in 
their belts, and fifteen days' rations. It was well along in 
the afternoon when the Rapido pulled away from the China 
with the whole First Colorado in tow in cascos. The lit- 
tle procession steamed straight for the beach opposite the 
camp of the California boys, but the tide had gone out and 
the cascos couldn't cross the bar, little water as they draw. 
It was almost dark by this time and there was no chance of 
getting anything ashore from the cascos. A few native 
boats came out and took the officers and some of the men 
ashore, but for most of the men it was a simple case of 
wade. The water was warm and not deep, and there was 
no particular discomfort in the wading, but it was wet as 
water usually is, and there was no chance to get dry. 
Also there was no chance to make coffee or cook supper. 
Water they had in their canteens and their blankets were 
in rolls on their backs. Back in the field, where it was 
comparatively dry, they went, and on their arms they 
slept. It was beginning soldier life in earnest, but the 
Colorado men were used to it. Most of them had seen 



I40 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

harder service in the big Leadville strike. Just to remind 
them of old times in the mountains, it rained in the night. 
Sometimes it drizzles here, sometimes it makes believe, 
sometimes it showers, and then again it rains. When it 
rains there is a business-like character about the downpour 
that recalls stories of Ararat and the most ancient ship- 
builder. However, none of the Colorado boys were 
drowned or floated into the bay, and this morning they 
felt so good that straightway two companies marched up 
almost to the insurgent trenches and established their 
picket lines in sight of the Spanish works. It gave them 
a comforting and home-like feeling to be able to hear the 
occasional ping-yang of a bullet. 

This morning the Second Battalion of the California 
regiment went away in two cascos behind the Eapido. 
Father McKinnon went along disconsolate. He had just 
got the little chapel opposite headquarters fixed up in proper 
shape, and he fancied that he was to have some peace, at 
least for a few days. As the tow arrived along toward the 
beach opposite the camp a signal went up on the Olympia, 
The Boston answered, and presently she got her anchor 
and steamed along toward the point at which the Eapido 
was aiming. The American camp is not very far from 
the old stone fort at Malate, where the Spaniards have 
some good guns. They are said to be 8-inch Krupps, and 
they talk like it when they are addressing the insurgents 
in their nightly conversation. The Boston went in until 
she had the old fort fairly under her guns and dropped 
her anchor. It almost seems as if the commanders out 
here had taken some profit from the tactics of certain pro- 
fessional gentlemen whose business is on the stage and 
pleasure in the prize ring. For instance, the Spaniards 
have been warned that we have a chip on our shoulder, 
and if they make a move to knock it off we will bang them 
one in the solar plexus. So they sit idly by and watch us 
coming closer and closer, and increasing in strength until 
we are quite ready to do the trick, and they make no talk 
about it at all, at least that we can hear. So when the 
Boston took the camp under her wing the Spaniards looked 
on and kept still. The sun was shining brightly, and all 
the movements of cascos and cruiser were in plain view of 
the defenders of the beleaguered city. Can you imagine 



REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE I4I 

what the feeling would be to be shut up in a city sur- 
rounded by your enemies, to be able to watch the enemies 
constantly strengthening themselves, waiting for months 
for the time to come to strike, unable to help yourself, 
and knowing that in the end you must surrender or die ? 
So it stands to-night. The boys of the Third Bat- 
talion of the Californians are getting their supper aboard 
cascos as I write, and the sounds of their work come in 
through my open window and furnish a staccato bass to 
the zwanging and the zwinging of the ^skeeters, the only 
reminder of New Jersey in all Cayite. The Nebraska 
boys are going ashore too, and the dandy Thurston Rifles, 
Omaha^s own pet boys, will have a chance at soldier life 
as a business and not a picnic. By Friday night the 
camp will be settled with all the men there who are 
likely to go. The feeling grows that the fall of Manila 
is very near at hand. The air has been as full of fake 
stories all day as a yellow journal bulletin board, and Fve 
nearly run my legs off chasing them down. They began 
with the movement of Spanish prisoners across the bay 
by the insurgents about sunrise. That started the yarn 
that some of our boys were going into camp over Mala- 
bon way, north of Manila, and that the attack would be 
made that way. Then came the gold brick that Dewey 
had sent the bombardment notification to the foreign Con- 
suls at Manila, and that the fleet was ordered to have 
steam up to-morrow. Anybody would think there was a 
new yellow journal bureau with a brand new managing 
editor out here, or at least a city editor to run it. The 
ships lie here usually with fires drawn, and anchored, and 
the story is that to-morrow fires will be made again. That, 
perhaps, foreshadows in a way the approaching attack, 
but it won^t come to-morrow or the next day, unless the 
tired Spaniard concludes to take a whack at that chip and 
have it over with. It is more likely that it simply means 
that all ships shall be ready for the contingency of an 
attack, chance or otherwise, on our men. There is this 
to be considered also : Admiral Dewey has received 
information that the Spanish fleet that was to have rein- 
forced Manila has been ordered back to Spain. That at 
once places him at liberty to dispose his ships about the 
bay by taking away the possible necessity of sudden con- 



142 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

centration. To-day he began the scattering of his fleet 
by moving the Boston in close to the new camp, for its 
protection. 

The prize gold brick of the day, however, was the story 
that the California men had been fired on in their camp 
last night. That was jnsta lie out of whole cloth. There 
was one guess which might be deemed a little worse than 
the shooting yarn. It emanated from the Oregon quar- 
ters and was scattered by a foot-racing tidings bearer, who 
breathlessly informed everybody he met that Manila had 
surrendered. Word had been sent out to Admiral Dewey 
early in the evening and everybody would go in to-mor- 
row. " Such stuS as dreams are made of/' 



CHAPTER XXII 

N"IGHT ALAKM li^ CAMP 

July 20. — The sun came up over Mount Maui, behind 
Manila, this morning with another prize yarn, ]3ut this 
time there was some foundation for it. The story was that 
in the night the Spaniards had attacked our camp and that 
some of our men had been wounded. What happened was 
this : The two companies of Colorado men who were sent 
forward as pickets established their line only a short distance 
in the rear of the insurgent trench. The Spaniards in 
Malate varied their usual evening performance by drop- 
ping a shell or two into the insurgent lines. Such ac- 
curate shooting on the part of the Spaniards was decidedly 
unparliamentary, no notice having been given, and the 
insurgents got out. They were going down the road in a 
somewhat excited manner when they passed the Colorado 
pickets. The men from the State of old Blood-to-the- 
Bridles Waite say that the Filipinos were running. It 
was a bully rout, that was what it was, and the blood- 
thirsty Spaniards would be upon them in a few minutes. 
So Major Moses, in command of the guard, sent word to 
Colonel Hale of the danger he was in. The messenger 
reached Colonel Hale's headquarters blown and sweating 
from a lively run. It was about 9 o'clock, and some of the 



NIGHT ALARM IN CAMP I43 

men, tired out with tlieir hard day's work in making- 
camp, were ah-eady sound asleep. Others were taking an 
evening dip in the bay from the beach in front of the 
camp. The Colonel lost no time in turning out the reg- 
iment and the '^^ assembly '' hurried the sleepers and the 
bathers alike to their guns. Colonel Smith turned out his 
California regiment, too, in mighty short order. Seven 
minutes after the drums began to sound the California 
men had formed a battle line in front of their camp. The 
Colorado boys were close behind them, most of the swim- 
mers having stopped only for shoes and trousers. The two 
regiments moved forward and the California men took 
positions from the beach up to the road that runs behind 
their camp and leads along the beach to Manila. To the 
right of the road, about a mile north of this camp, a 
narrow road leads off to the interior. Along this road 
Colonel Hale posted his Colorado men, and they waited 
for their pickets to come tumbling in. But the pickets 
didn't come. It was a false alarm. The Spaniards were 
not chasing the insurgents. Some of the Filipinos who 
had been in the trench until they were tired were going 
home, that Avas all, and they were hurrying so as to lose 
no sleep. The Spaniards never chase the insurgents, any- 
way, now. They have had enough of it. The insurgents 
have a nasty way of crawling into the brush beside the road 
and hopping out with bolos as the pursuer comes along. 
They chop open a few Spanish heads, grab a few Spanish 
rifles and get out. So the regiments and the pickets 
waited in vain. 

In the meantime Colonel Hale had wigwagged to the 
Boston, which is only half a mile off shore, with a couple 
of candles, and asked that General Greene be notified. 
The Boston passed the signal along to the flagship, and a 
steam launch was sent to the China at once for the Gen- 
eral, who had not yet established his field headquarters. 
General Greene went over to the camp with all speed. He 
found the men of the two regiments resting on their arms 
and still waiting for the pickets. The camp had been left 
under a guard of one company each. The General satis- 
fied himself that there was no advance of the Spanish and 
sent the men back to their camps. Then he returned to 
his ship. To-day he moved into his headquarters in the 



144 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

field. He has a native house right in front of the Cali- 
fornia camp^ but is arranging to get under canvas. The 
men were putting up his tents this afternoon. 

All day there was sharp work in taking men ashore. 
The Third Battalion of California troops was ordered to be 
ready to move out from Cavite at 6 : 30 o'clock this morn- 
ing. At 7 o'clock General Anderson came down to the 
dock and the men were not yet ready. The General was 
greatly displeased^ and placed the Major who was in com- 
mand of the battalion under arrest. The Major had been 
in charge of the property left behind by the other two 
battalions, and the work of storing that with the property 
of his own battalion was too much for the time he had, 
but the excuse did not satisfy General Anderson. 

The First Xebraska boys were taken from the Senator 
in half a dozen cascos, and all the afternoon they were 
busy setting up their tents and getting their stores up. 

The campground is a level stretch of comparatively high 
land between the beach and the Manila road, abont two 
miles north of Paraiiaque and as far south of Mai ate. 
Part of it is in turf and part under cultivation. The soil 
is pretty sandy, so that the rains will not make much 
trouble by reason of mud. The Nebraska boys are camped 
in a peanut field. This afternoon an old Filipino, who 
wore no shirt and had his cotton trousers rolled half way 
up his thighs, was wandering about the field asking every 
man he met who was not in a private's uniform for pay 
for his ruined peanuts. At last some one told him to go 
to the General, and ultimately he found his way to General 
Greene's headquarters. There he could not make his 
trouble understood, so he said he would get an interpreter. 
He came back presently with one of Aguinaldo's Captains, 
and the Captain interpreted by telling General Greene not 
to pay any man for the peanut field, because two or three 
•would claim it, but to send the money to Filipino head- 
quarters and there the right man would be found. 

Yesterday afternoon the big British bark Ancenis came 
working her way in by Corregidor. The Concord went out 
to meet her. The Ancenis was very light, and she re- 
ported that she was fifty-five days out from Yokohama, 
here for cargo. The Concord turned her back, and when 
night fell she was threshing out past Corregidor again. 



NIGHT ALARM IN CAMP 145 

Fifty-five days ago they knew in Yokohama that war had 
been declared and that this port was blockaded. They 
knew it was useless to come here for cargo. But there 
were men here who greatly desired cargoes of certain kinds. 
Just before the Concord steamed out to meet the An- 
cenis the insurgent steamer Filipinas came in loaded down 
with men. If there had been transferred to her hold a 
valuable cargo from the Ancenis no one was the wiser. 
The insurgents surely have a great many good rifles and 
great quantities of ammunition. They are better armed 
than our volunteer soldiers. 

July 21. — The Colorado boys have thought up a story 
to account for their performance of the other evening. It 
was drill, that was all. Everybody in the regiment knew 
what was coming. Colonel Hale had prepared the plan 
very carefully. The trouble was that the courier from the 
front made a mistake. It was the plan that he should 
bring the false alarm into his own camp. There every- 
body was waiting for it and nothing but good drill would 
result. But unfortunately the courier stumbled through 
the bamboos and across the fields into the camp of the 
First California and the whole trouble resulted. That is 
a first-class after-explanation but for two things. There 
is an article of war which makes the bringing of a false 
alarm into a camp at night in the face of the enemy a 
mighty serious business. By making that explanation of 
his action Colonel Hale hops into the fire for sure. But 
even that explanation fails in face of the signal to the 
Boston and to the Olympia. That broke out the Admiral 
at half-past nine, and again after midnight when General 
Greene returned to his ship, and that^s carrying a joke a 
long way. 

The Tenth Pennsylvania, the battalion of the Eight- 
eenth Eegulars, and one battery of Utah Light Artillery 
got away from their transports to-day and joined the 
camp. Work was going on all day, too, hustling out 
stores from the ships of the Second Brigade. They are 
coming ashore in a fashion that makes the storekeepers 
hurry up to get one load stored away before the next ar- 
rives. The last of the troops will be out of them to- 
morrow, except the guards over regimental property, and 
the stores will all be unloaded in a few days. There will 
10 



146 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

have to be lively work to get it all done before General 
Merritt arrives with the third expedition. The figuring 
is that he is only eight days at most behind General Greene, 
and that ought to bring him here on Monday, the 25th. 
He will save at least four days by not going to Guam. 

Two Swiss gentlemen, Alfred Noll and Enrique Schaub, 
wandered into Camp Tambo this afternoon with passes 
from the Captain- General in Manila in and out of the 
lines. They were representatives, they said, of one of the 
largest trading houses in Manila. They were buying 
notes of the Philippine Bank in Manila. The natives sell 
a 15 note for $2 in silver, but the bank is still paying and 
there is great profit. General Greene concluded that it 
would be a fair thing to have General Anderson see the 
two traders. He suggested it to General Anderson^s aide. 
Lieutenant Clark, who agreed with him. Clark invited 
the two gentlemen to go to Cavite in his launch and they 
accepted. To-night they are in jail, and there they are 
likely to stay for some time. Buying bank notes between 
the lines, with passes from the besieged, is curious busi- 
ness in war time. Noll and Schaub confirmed many of the 
stories already told about the situation in Manila. They 
said the food supply was almost gone, that only horse 
meat was obtainable now, and that the army officials had 
seized most of the horses. Fruit cannot be had for any 
price, and a 35-cent chicken costs $3 or more. There is 
dissension in the army on the question of surrendering. 
The Captain-General, who, it seems, is again in the as- 
cendant after his temporary submission to Jaudenes, the 
Segundo Caho, is determined to surrender as soon as the 
Americans advance. Some of the subordinate officers 
who want to fight to the last are reported to have drawn 
lots to see which shall kill Augustin if he surrenders, and 
the plan for his assassination is completed. The volun- 
teers have refused to leave the walls of the city, and so 
nearly all of the regulars have been sent into the trenches 
and outworks. 

This morning Pedro Lapana, a Filipino, came to General 
Anderson and reported that he had discovered a plot on 
the part of the Spanish prisoners who surrendered in the 
gunboat Leyte to escape. These prisoners were turned 
over to the insurgents to be guarded, and it appears that 



NIGHT ALARM IN CAMP I47 

they were being nearly starved to death. They had smug- 
gled some letters through to Manila, and were prepared to 
break out of their prison — which would be very easy — 
steal a native boat, and try to get into Manila. The only 
possibility of success lay in the carelessness of their Fili- 
pino guards. Spanish prisoners wander all about Cavite 
and beg from the Americans for money to buy food. No- 
body pays any attention to them, apparently. They are 
dressed and look like some of the insurgents, and it would 
be no trick for a bold man to get away. Nine did the 
other day, and got into Manila. These fellows to-day 
were turned over to Captain Geary of the California Heavy 
Artillery, who has charge of the prisoners from Guam. 
Now they will not want for food or exercise or proper 
guard. 

This was the birthday of her Majesty the Queen Eegent 
of Spain. The ships of the foreigners anchored off Manila 
put on their best dress of bunting, and at noon fired the 
national salute. From far over the bay came the muffled 
echoes of the answering guns of Manila doing honour to 
the harassed first lady of Spain for the last time probably. 
Before another fortnight rolls by in all likelihood the crested 
red and yellow of Spain will have been hauled down from 
the giant flagstaff by the old fort forever, and in its place 
the glorious red, white, and blue ribbons of the freest 
country on earth will " ripple like the rainbows round the 
storm that shakes the sky." 

July 22. — It seems that some of the Leyte prisoners 
who were transferred to Captain Geary's care went at their 
own request to Admiral Dewey. They had had enough of 
insurgent care and j)rotested to the Admiral. They were 
not in any conspiracy to escape. That, it seems, was con- 
fined to the sailormen. The officers, about fifty of them, 
sent word to the Admiral that they wanted to be under 
an American guard, because the ^^ Americans were a civ- 
ilized people. '' So they were transferred. This morning 
eight of them were released. Captain Geary in taking a 
census of his new prisoners, found four priests and four 
civilians one of whom was Juan de Juan of Madrid, who 
had been representing a Madrid newspaper in Manila. The 
eight were all released, and will try to get up to Hong 
Kong. 



148 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

CHAPTER XXIII 

HOUSE BUILDIN^G IN A KAINY CAMP 

Cavite, July 28. — The foolish cable that dribbles oc- 
casional bits of half-baked news into Hong Kong, whence 
they are filtered down to Cavite, tells us that the Govern- 
ment has decided to suspend operations against Manila 
until the rains are over. Then will the Government 
please send us a few hundred arks ? We have urgent 
need of them at once, and if they could reach us by cable 
it would be a godsend. By the end of the rainy season, in 
October, there will be nothing left of us with which to 
resume operations but our gun-barrels, and they will be 
covered with rust. All the rest will be in solution. We're 
saturated now. It beats all creation how it can rain out 
here. Rain is all right in its way. Some of it is a good 
thing. It keeps things generally reasonably clean and fur- 
nishes drinking water. But one steady, undisturbed, im- 
perturbable, unceasing flood becomes tiresome after a while, 
and all the time it is wet. You don't mind an occasional 
soaking. It gives excuse for taking a drink. But one 
has something to do down here besides change his clothes 
and drink whiskey. And web feet bring fever. Windows 
and shutters clamped as close together as Spanish rain- 
driven ingenuity can force them keep out some of the 
rain and all of the sodden air that courtesy calls fresh be- 
cause it moves. The mercury charges to the top of its 
glass case in the thermometer aud disappears from view in 
the barometer. The wise men wag their beards and make 
remarks about typhoons. With body and soul burning up 
with fever, and the cinchona band playing the Dead March 
from *^ Saul " in your ears, somehow you sort of lose focus. 
Things get out of perspective, and there is a lack of con- 
sistent continuity. You wabble a bit, and the rum you 
have drunk to help the quinine you have eaten is singu- 
larly ineffective for the desired purpose, but powerfully 
active in the wrong way. 

Over in camp they are enjoying themselves mightily — 



HOUSE BUILDING IN A RAINY CAMP 149 

if one has no regard for truth. Uncle Sam's nep„ew in 
the ranks is like the ^'^bloomin' cosmopolouse/' for his 
work ^^ begins at gawd knows when an' his work is never 
through/' And the rain hasn't anything to do with it. He 
turns out at 4:45 in the morning and drills a few hours — 
poco mas, poco menas [more or less] in the rain. Then he 
gets his breakfast, seasoned with rain-water. After that 
he cleans up his rifle and coats it liberally with oil, against 
the soaking it will get in the morning drill. Guard mount 
interrupts other things, and if he happens not to be on 
the guard detail, or the police detail, he gets a few mo- 
ments in his soggy shelter tent to consider the state of the 
weather and to speculate on the subject of patriotism 
considered as a business. 

After morning drill he gets a chance to go out into the 
scrub with an axe and gather some thorn-spiked bamboo. 
This bamboo, tough, wiry, and covered with briers as it is, 
is the only genuine, all-around infallible, friend he has. 
As long as his axe and his wit hold out the bamboo will do 
the rest. He cuts down a long pole, perhaps four inches 
in diameter, and trims off all the little branches and big 
thorns. Then he cuts it into four-foot lengths. One end 
he sharpens and in the other he cuts a good sized notch. 
He drives four of these stakes a foot or more into the ground, 
one at each corner of his tent. The notches in the upper 
ends serve as cradles for the long bamboos he lays across 
them as stringers for the house he means to build. These 
stringers are just as long as his tent. The sticks that 
go with the shelter tent are not long enough now, so he 
cuts a couple of bamboos to serve as tent poles, one at each 
end. At the back of the tent he swings a bamboo girder 
between the two stringers, resting the ends in notches in 
the stringers and lashing them fast with fine strips of the 
surface of green bamboo, tougher, stouter, and more 
pliable than wire. His tent spreads at the bottom about 
seven feet, and he has one chum to help him occupy it. 
Two feet and a half inside the front corner stake he drives 
another one on each side. These are notched on top also, 
and across them he lays two other stringers, resting the 
rear ends in notches in the girder at the back. This 
gives him the framework of two beds, each two and a half 
feet wide and as long as his tent. Now he splits some 



150 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

bamboo poles into thin strips, some just tlie length of his 
bed and others just the width of it. The strips are per- 
haps an inch wide, and are trimmed down to about an 
eighth of an inch in thickness. His sharp little axe is his 
only tool. He weaves the short strips into the long ones, 
criss-cross, until he has a mat just the size of his bedstead. 
At two-foot intervals along the frame he steps little bam- 
boo slats in the bed stringers. Over these he lays his im- 
provised springs, and he has a bed that is cool — compara- 
tively, not even an ice machine is really cool down here — 
and comfortable. Between the two beds there is a space 
about two feet wide where he can stand upright. At the 
rear end of the tent he swings another little woven mat 
about two feet wide between the beds, and there he has a 
little table, on which he can put the trinkets he wants to 
keep out of the wet. Above it, on the rear tent pole, he 
straps a small piece of board, secured somewhere, and 
sawed into shape for an arm -rack. There the two guns rest 
in the intervals between drills and guard duty. Some pegs 
in the tent poles serve as hooks, and the house is fairly 
complete. There is space enough between the beds for 
the men to walk into the tent and for their feet when they 
want to sit on the beds and read or work. A frame on 
the rear pole, beside the arm-rack, holds a candle. 

But the ingenious soldier is not through yet with his 
devices for comfort. His tent is only one thickness of 
canvas, and, although it will shed rain, it will not stand 
against the customary Philippine deluge. He builds a 
light frame of bamboo over it and covers the frame with a 
thatch of banana leaves. Or, perhaps, he uses the ever- 
faithful bamboo. In front of the tent he makes a similar 
awning. If the sun should shine by any chance^ it would 
serve as a shade, but its chief work is in turning rain. 
Altogether the soldier has built himself a serviceable house. 
It keeps him fairly dry when he can stay in it, and his bed 
is off the ground. The tent makes the roof, and the 
thatch protects that. It is almost as good as a native hut. 

Housebuilding such as this is not done, of course, in 
one morning's respite from routine work, or in an after- 
noon either. It fills up the small chinks between army 
duty for a couple of days, and until it is finished the sol- 
dier lies on the ground and stands it as best he can. So 



HOUSE BUILDING IN A RAINY CAMP 151 

far he has stood it well. There has been almost no sick- 
ness in camp. In barracks in Cavitt these was a great 
deal, principally due to the fact that the men were so near 
the native village. They ate all sorts of fruit with as 
much avidity as if they never expected to see fruit of any 
kind again. And they drank whatever they could find in 
the way of liquor, experimentally, and the results very 
often were disastrous. At first there was a good bit of 
sickness that was very much like dysentery. General An- 
derson says that there was no dysentery. The medical 
men shake their heads and say they do not think there was 
any dysentery. And there you are. 

The soldier's housebuilding gets a welcome break at noon 
with '^ chow," and after that there is time for more of it. 
Then afternoon drill comes and more work on the wet 
rifles, and evening parade and supper and more rain, and 
then back to the tents again and oil up the rifles and crawl 
away from the edge of the tent, where the water soaks 
through. 

The camp extends over a wide strip of land near the 
shore for about a mile and a half. Now it is to be en- 
larged and pushed further up toward the front. 

General Merritt's arrival stirred things up a bit. Very 
soon after the ISTewport dropped anchor the Provisional 
Governor of the Philippines had begun to take stock of 
his province. He took luncheon with Admiral Dewey, 
and benefited by the vast amount of information collected 
by the active naval commander. Then he saw General 
Anderson and heard all about what had been done by the 
land forces. General Greene was away on a reconnoissance 
of his own that afternoon, but early the next morning Gen- 
eral Merritt saw him and learned what he had found out. 
There had been a lot of scouting and several parties had 
been clear around Manila, making maps and turning in 
very complete reports covering the character of the coun- 
try and the possibility of transporting the difierent arms 
of the service, prospects for foraging, ways of living on 
the country, camp-grounds, possibilities of artillery being 
of service, and all those things that a general needs to 
know about the enemy^'s country. General Merritt went 
over all the materials and data that had been collected, 
and heard all there was about the situation. 



152 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

First the artillerymen on the Newport were hustled into 
camp, with their guns and their supplies. This interfered 
somewhat with the unloading of stores from the transports 
of the second expedition, which had been proceeding with 
great rapidity, but that work was resumed again with the 
old vigour as soon as the Newport's troops were landed. 
Oascos were kept on the go all the time, and gangs of 
natives were running about on shore, carrying the boxes 
and bales and bags from the docks to the storehouses. 
Now the ships are nearly unloaded, and by the time the 
remaining transports of the third expedition are here the 
Quartermaster will be ready for them. It is a task of 
appalling proportions to unload a transport here by means 
of the slow, poky lighters and the natives. They are not 
quick to understand what is wanted, and it does no good 
to get excited and swear. They keep calm and sit down 
until you get an interpreter. There is hardly a thing 
that they can do without debate, and their discussion is 
animated and long. 

General Merritt decided at once on the formation of his 
command into one division of two brigades, one under Gen- 
eral Greene, the other under General MacArthur, who is 
on one of the ships now due. All will go into Camp Dewey, 
and General Anderson will leave his comfortable quarters 
here and go under canvas as division commander. Major 
Jones, who has been Chief Quartermaster, is sent to camp 
as master of transportation, and Major Wadsworth comes 
into Major Jones's place here. Jones is one of the most 
capable men in the army, a man of tremendous energy and 
unlimited ability to hustle. And he keeps his men hus- 
tling, too. He has managed all the work of transporting 
the troops from the ships and to camp and unloading the 
stores and getting them housed. He has kept everything 
moving at top speed and has accomplished an enormous 
amount. Jones was for a straightout settlement of the 
Aguinaldo question at the start, and he never was happier 
than when the demand for transportation brought the 
matter partly into his hands. Then he delivered the first 
eye-opener the crafty Filipino had. 

That is the situation to-day. Everybody is hard at 
work, and all the preparations move toward the common 
end, the attack on Manila. The fleet is ready as far as 



HOUSE BUILDING IN A RAINY CAMP 1 53 

the ships now here are concerned, but the Admiral wants 
to wait until the Monterey gets here with her 12 and 10- 
inch rifles. He wants them, for use against the heavy guns 
in the shore batteries. 

There are two opinions about the question of a bom- 
bardment. Admiral Dewey has had the best sort of in- 
formation that the Captain-General has made up his mind 
to surrender. A Consul, who has been one of the best 
sources of information the Admiral has, is also a great 
friend of Augustin, and he told the Admiral several days 
ago that when the Spanish Commander-in-Chief became 
satisfied that Camara's fleet, with reinforcements, had 
turned back, he would be ready to surrender. 

July 29. — The chief Commissary is feeding Aguinaldo's 
prisoners by order of General Merritt. If Aguinaldo 
doesn't like it they will be fed anyhow. There are only a 
few of the poor devils left in Cavite now, less than a hun- 
dred all told. When there were thousands of them, and 
the American troops had just landed, they were fed fairly 
well. Their ration was almost all rice, but there was 
enough of that to keep them in pretty good condition, and 
it was what they were accustomed to having. But the 
thousands have been moved out, and this little crowd that 
is left is having a hard time of it. The men have sold 
the buttons off their uniforms and the distinguishing 
marks from their hats, and some of them have sold even 
their medals given them by the boy King for valour and 
loyalty. The little they got for these trinkets went but a 
short way in providing food, and fruit was all it bonght ; 
no meat. Yesterday the Commissary happened to go by 
the old convent where they are kept, and the sight of the 
thin, wax-like faces peering through the bars of the old 
cloister windows stopped him. He pushed the Filipino 
guard aside and went in. Dozens of the Spaniards sur- 
rounded him, all begging for money for food. They of- 
fered what poor trinkets they had to sell — anything for 
food. The Commissary reported to the General, and this 
morning went with two natives with a handcart full of 
canned roast beef and hardtack. 

There was a great clamour in the prison when the little 
squad, headed by the Commissary and his clerk, went 
through the big gate. The poor devils, emaciated, un- 



154 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

kempt, ghastly white, straggled out and surrounded him, 
so eager they could hardly wait for the boxes to be broken 
open. Their officer was with them, and he bustled about 
with his little cane and his book in which their names 
were written, ready to call the roll and see that each man 
got his share. The silver head was gone from the stick, 
and he was barefooted like the rest. Not a brass button 
was left to him or a distinguishing mark of his rank. He 
was bareheaded. The men were formed in double line 
across the yard, and at the start the line was straight, but 
gradually, as the Commissary^s Filipinos broke open the 
hardtack boxes, the ends of the line drew in until the 
half-starved wretches formed a semicircle about the hand- 
cart and the food. Then the issue began. 

The officer wanted to call his roll, but the men had not 
fallen in in order, and it developed at once that there would 
be a chance for repeating ; one man was at one end of the 
line and the next at the other. So the Commissary ordered 
the officer to shut up and the men to keep their places. 
Then his own men marched along the line, one with an 
armful of hardtack boxes, and the other issuing one box 
to each man. As each man got his ration he sidestepped 
to the right and the next fell into his place. So every 
man got a box of the good crackers, and before the third 
had drawn his ration the first two were eating theirs. 

Then the beef was served out, and this time the officer 
got along all right with his roll call at the start, but 
finished in a grand mix-up in less than a minute. There 
was one can for four men. The first four men called fell 
out of line, stepped up to the handcart and got their beef. 
Then, instead of reforming they moved off to one side a 
little and began to open the can. The second squad joined 
them, and in no time there was a tangle. Some ran back 
to the line to try to repeat and others left the line to try 
to get their share ahead of the rest. The Commissary 
stopped the roll call on the spot and reformed the line. 
Then he made those who had drawn beef fall out, and the 
rest he separated into squads as they stood in line, and 
gave each squad a can. They thanked him with shouts, 
and were scattering to their separate nooks and corners for 
the feast, when he stood upon the steps by the big gate 
and made them a speech in Spanish. It was neither Cas- 



INCHING UP ON THE DONS 155 

tilian nor Ollendorfian, but they understood and shouted 
assent. 

''^ Manana/'' he said, ^*^ todos bianco roba." He rubbed 
his own spotless white jacket and pointed to their shabby, 
dirty jackets. '^ No bianco roba," he went on, '' no chow. 
Blanco roba, chow." 

[^^ To-morrow, all clean clothes. No clean clothes, 
nothing to eat. Clean clothes, plenty to eat.^^] 

They laughed and shouted and promised all clean 
clothes for to-morrow. Water they have in plenty, and 
they can work for themselves. But it will be a great sur- 
prise if he succeeds in putting them through that process 
so easily. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

INCHII^G UP OK THE DONS 

Cavite, July 30. — "We are inching up on the Spaniards 
and turning down the insurgents at the same time. As I 
said in a previous letter, Aguinaldo has been doing the 
very best a clever young man with few advantages and 
small means can do to complicate matters here, and he 
has had some inadvertent assistance. By the time Gen- 
eral Merritt got here the correspondence between the 
insurgent chief and General Anderson had grown rather 
voluminous, and the diplomatic advantage was not with 
the American. General Anderson had finally been 
brought to the point of simply acknowledging the receipt 
of Aguinaldo^s letters and saying that they would be re- 
ferred to General Merritt. General Merritt has wasted no 
time whatever with the insurgent leader. The question 
of the procurement of transportation facilities, over which 
there had been so much letter-writing, he settled out of 
hand by sending out Major Thompson, his chief signal 
officer, with a detachment to seize what animals and con- 
veyances were needed. They pay what they think is a 
fair price for whatever they take, and the only trouble so 
far has been that they have paid too much. They are 
bulling the market and ruining the natives and bankrupt- 



156 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

ing the Americans. They have actually paid 100 pesos 
for a horse that could have been bought for 40. But the 
satisfactory part of it is that they take what they want, 
and Agumaldo's desires or orders do not figure in the 
transaction. 

From this good start the General has gone further. By 
his orders General Greene sent the regulars of the Eight- 
eenth Infantry, encamped at Camp Dewey, forward on 
outpost work. They moved up close to the trenches 
occupied by the insurgent lines. 

The Utah Battery has been moved up into the trenches 
occupied by the insurgents in front of Malate. Our out- 
posts were so far up that occasionally where there was a 
brush between the insurgents and the Spaniards, Spanish 
bullets and shells fired over the Filipinos dropped among 
our men. No one was hit, but that was good luck only. 
General Merritt sent word to Aguinaldo asking him to stop 
the insurgents from firing on the Spaniards and provoking 
a reply. Aguinaldo complied by withdrawing his men 
from the trenches and the Utah men were sent forward. 
Their guns are in position now less than a thousand yards 
from the enemy. They are supported by a battery of the 
Third Artillery as infantry, and a battalion of infantry is 
held always in reserve ready to move to their reinforce- 
ment at once if necessary. 

Major Jones is collecting material to transport all the 
artillery to the front and into the interior. It is the in- 
tention to corduroy the roads. This will be done by 
covering them with bamboo mats, such as the natives use 
for bridge flooring, instead of in the usual way at home 
with logs. The bamboo corduroy will have the advan- 
tage that it can be taken up after the guns have passed 
and carried ahead to be used again. Our men at the front 
have orders not to begin any action, but to respond if they 
are fired on ; as this is written the reports of rifles and an 
occasional gun are coming across the bay from in front of 
Malate, but it cannot be told from here whether the firing 
is at our men or at insurgents further inland. 

General Merritt has been very active in informing him- 
self about the character of the country around Manila, 
particularly to the south and east. It is from one of those 
directions that the attack will be made — if indeed, it 



INCHING UP ON THE DONS I57 

comes to a fight. The engineers are also hard at work 
making maps. Parties are out constantly. They have 
followed the insurgent lines clear around the city several 
times and have made accurate locations of the Spanish 
outposts, besides obtaining a lot of information about the 
strength of the main Spanish lines and the location of 
guns on the walls. The engineers are engaged now in 
taking sights from church towers and tall buildings about 
Manila on objects in the city and so coming to exact 
measurements of distances. 

Aguinaldo does his best to keep at the head of the pro- 
cession, but it is evident that he is falling behind. The 
question of what will happen to the insurgents after Manila 
falls is already worrying him. The Filipino object will 
have been accomplished when the Spaniards are driven 
out of the city ; that is, the main object. After that 
there will be no need of an insurgent army, and the ques- 
tion arises, What will the Filipinos do with their arms ? 
If the Americans are wise there will be a general and 
thorough disarmament. How to accomplish that is one of 
the problems General Merritt must decide. Aguinaldo 
foresees that possibility, and is planning already to fore- 
stall it if he can. He has written to General Merritt, 
asking as a matter of justice to the Filipinos, and as a 
great privilege also, that when the city finally does sur- 
render to the Americans his army be permitted to march 
through the streets. He wants to make a triumphal 
march through the strong city of his oppressors. It would 
be a great triumph for him, and a great glory. What 
political assistance it would give him in the way of pres- 
tige, or influence over the tribes and factions that are op- 
posed to him, is one of the things General Merritt will 
consider in making his reply to Aguinaldo^s request. He 
has not yet reached a determination. 

Aguinaldo does not want his men disarmed, and he 
makes this suggestion to General Merritt to avoid it : 
That there be formed several regiments of Filipinos, to be 
officered by Americans, and to be kept as part of the reg- 
ular force of the Americans in the Philippines as long as 
they maintain an armed force in the islands. The fact 
which that suggestion brings up most forcibly is the ac- 
tion of the Filipinos in going over by whole regiments to 



158 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

the Spaniards in the present rebellion. It wonld be diffi- 
cult to find an American officer here who would take such 
a command voluntarily. They recall the great Indian 
mutiny, and they are not blind to the events that are 
occurring here almost daily. 



CHAPTER XXV 

MILITAKY STATION NO. 1 

Cayite July 30. — The new Philippine station of Uncle 
Sam's Post Office is in full operation. It is only a branch 
of the San Francisco office, but it is as busy in a way as 
the head concern. The Postmaster is Mr. F. W. Vaille, 
who is an inspector in the railroad Post Office, with head- 
quarters at Portland, Ore. He came down on the China 
with ten clerks and a safe full of good things in the way 
of stamps and supplies, registry books, money-order forms, 
and all that a well-regulated Post Office should have, for 
this is going to be a big office. When it is established in 
Manila with the business of 20,000 soldiers to look after, 
as well as that of the city, it will have a lot to do. The 
20,000 soldiers will provide almost as much work for it as 
a town the size of Omaha. 

Mr. Vaille had a notion all the way over that his outfit 
would be the first thing landed from the ship. But he 
was disappointed. There are other things more impor- 
tant to an army in the field than a Post Office. There is 
the debarkation of troops, and that requires all the cascos 
that might be used for taking a safe full of postage stamps 
ashore. After the men are all in camp their stores must 
follow, and as the stores are always loaded hit and miss in 
a troopship, so that they must be handled two or three 
times in order to get out what is wanted, it takes a lot of 
time to get the army things out and be ready at last to 
handle the Postmaster's safe. Then, too, the Postmaster 
wants an office. He must have it. Now the buildings in 
an army post are in the custody of the Quartermaster, and 
the Quartermaster just now is the busiest man in the lot. 
He is in charge of a few hundred other things as well as 



MILITARY STATION NO. I 1 59 

tlie buildings and all of them require immediate attention. 
He is tlie big boss of the fleet of cascos and the tug mis- 
named Kapido, and he just has to '' make ice cream '^ all 
the time, with no chance whatever to look after the selec- 
tion of Post Office buildings. 

Besides, mail is a matter of secondary or tertiary impor- 
tance to an army in the field. It is a fine thing to get a 
lot of letters, especially letters from '' Polly/' but the heads 
of affairs are old grey-headed men ; who ceased to be 
troubled by considerations of ^ ^ Polly ^' long ago, and are 
more intent on getting army work done than they are get- 
ting letters or writing them. Which, undoubtedly, is good 
for the army, however the spruce young "West Pointers 
and their numerous '* Pollies " may feel about it. 

So you see how naturally Mr. Vaille was mistaken. 
But troops and stores were finally put on shore, and the 
Quartermaster found time to pick out a building for the 
Post Office and a casco to bring the safe ashore. In the 
meantime there had been two mails by the transport City 
of Sydney and Australia, but every fellow had to take his 
own chance of catching them. There was no Post Office 
to help him. 

The building given to Mr. Yaille was a brick storehouse 
that stands on the south side of the plaza in front of Gen- 
eral Anderson^'s headquarters, and is only a few yards from 
the headquarters building. There was a lot of work to do 
in fitting it up, and all of it is not done yet, but the office 
was formally opened for business yesterday afternoon. 
There was a floor to be put in, mailbox racks to be built, 
and a rack for the mail sacks. It takes a native carpenter 
a long time to get anything done, particularly when he is 
working with narra, for the wood is so hard that it ruins 
ordinary tools, and nails bend and crumple up when one 
tries to drive them through it. A thorough skirmish 
through Cavite brought to light three or four old sets of 
pigeonholed shelves which do fairly well for box racks, and 
in an abandoned schoolhouse was found a form with its 
bench, which serves admirably for the general public desk, 
which is a necessary adjunct of any well-regulated United 
States Post Office. 

The Philippine station now consists of two rooms and a 
hall. The hall is in the centre of the building, and the 



l6o OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

main door, in fact, the only door, opens into it. On one 
side, to the left as you enter, a low railing and a screen 
separate the distributing room from the public hall. In 
the distributing room are the mail sack rack, Mr. Vaille's 
personal office, the letter boxes, and Mr. Vaille's bed. The 
drop box hangs on the railing, and the general delivery 
window is to be placed beside it. Across the hall, to the 
right as you enter, are the money order, registry and 
stamp departments, all in one, with a single window. 
There the big safe with its precious supplies stands, and 
there the two clerks, Conway and Kelly, hold forth and 
have their beds. It is an all-right Post Office, and the 
troops are mighty glad to have it. 

But the dearest thing about the Philippine station is 
outside the door. It is the thing which most of all gives 
it a homelike air and takes a fellow back to the land where 
he wishes he could be right now. It is a board hanging 
on the wall, with a long strip of paper tacked on it bear- 
ing the list of ^' unclaimed letters." On the other side of 
the door is a big blackboard, and there yesterday morning 
some one wrote. ^' Overland mail four days late.'' We 
thought the other transports certainly would be in yester- 
day but when late in the afternoon nothing had been 
heard of them, the notice on the blackboard was changed 
to '' Overland mail five days late." The blackboard also 
announced that the mail for home would close to-day at 
12 M. Similar notice was sent to all the ships and to 
Camp Dewey- This morning the mail will be collected 
and brought over to the Post Office. It goes straight 
through to San Francisco by the City of Peking, which 
has been released by the navy from her charter. 

Men from different regiments have been detailed as 
clerks in the Post Office, and the mails for the commands 
in camp will be made up separately and sent directly to 
the regimental or company postmasters. 

The San Francisco Post Office did a brilliant thing with 
the mail that was to come out by the third expedition. 
It was all put on board the Morgan City, the slowest of the 
five transports. Two days after the Morgan City left San 
Francisco, the Newport sailed with General Merritt. The 
Newport has been here five days, and the transports are 
still coming. We have the mail for those two days, and 



OUR BOYS SMELL POWDER l6l 

we might as well have had the other mail. But then we 
get two bites at the cherry. 

The new Post Office is a great relief to troubled minds. 
It settles the much-vexed question of sending soldiers' 
letters unstamped. The First Brigade left San Francisco 
just as the Post Office Department issued its first notice 
of its intention about such letters, and the boys got an 
idea that they could send anything home by mail simply 
indorsed '^soldier's letter." The first mail went by Hong 
Kong, and it cost Consul-General Wild man 1120 Mexican 
to put British stamps on the letters. It was almost im- 
possible to get such stamps here. The boys have not been 
paid since they enlisted, and the officers who had money 
have used or lent it all. Now, however, it's all right. 
The Peking will deliver to the San Francisco office a great 
pile of letters bearing the legend : 

Soldier's letter, shove it ahead ! 
Three months' pay due, 'nary a red. 
Plenty of hardtack, no soft bread, 
Soldier's letter, shove it ahead ! 



CHAPTER XXYI 

OUR BOYS SMELL POWDER 

Cavite, Philippines, Aug. 4. — The fight in the trenches 
south of Malate on the night of Sunday, July 31, which 
resulted in the first loss of life for the American forces in 
the conquest of the Philippine Islands differed in only 
one important particular — the one which cost lives — from 
the occurrences of previous or subsequent nights. It be- 
gan with the usual evening firing by the Spaniards, kept up 
against the Americans, just as they had kept it up against 
the insurgents when only Filipinos occupied trenches in 
their front. The unusual feature of the night's work was 
introdnced by our men in replying to the Spanish fire. 
They replied as Americans always will, standing up and 
exposing themselves in order to make their fire effective. 
The Spaniards shot surprisingly well, and many of those 
who were exposed were hit. As usual, the most danger- 
II 



l62 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

ous place was the opeu ground behind the trenches. Our 
reinforcements crossed this ground, and there a large part 
of our loss was incurred. That the Spaniards also suffered 
there can be no doubt whatever, but estimates of their loss 
are all guesswork. Several stories have come in. One 
man reported seeing five cartloads of dead soldiers hauled 
into Ermita. There was a report from Manila that the 
Spanish loss was 300. But just as after Dewey's Mayday 
fight, there is absolutely no way of arriving at anything 
like a trustworthy account. The Spaniards do not know 
themselves, and if they did they could not be depended 
upon to tell the truth. 

It becomes more and more clear that it was a mistake, 
and it cost the Tenth Pennsylvania men who made it dear. 
There was no need of replying to the Spanish fire. The 
intrenchment w^as almost perfect protection. When the 
men kept well behind their earthwork the Spanish fire was 
practically harmless. The First Colorado men, who began 
the trench, and the First Nebraska boys, who finished it, 
suffered no loss, although they worked steadily through 
the day as well as at night in throwing up the parapet. 
There was desultory firing at them much of the time, but 
it was all wild and they made no response. They paid not 
the least attention to the Spaniards and went on with their 
work. 

The night after the fight I spent in the trench with the 
First Colorado, Utah batteries and Third Battalion, First 
California. The Spaniards kept up a terrific fire nearly all 
night. For a few minutes after it began the Utah boys 
kept up a lively fire with their 3-inch guns, and the Col- 
orado boys showed the Spaniards a trick in volley firing. 
Then our fire ceased and thereafter from the main trench 
not a shot was fired all night. Not a man was hurt after 
our tiring stopped. They sat behind their parapet and let 
the Spaniards blaze away. Bullets and shells flew over our 
heads in whistling chorus until daylight, and then there 
was a tremendous outburst. Colonel Hale, however, kept 
his men down, and after a while the Spaniards got tired. 

It was on the morning of Friday, July 29, that our men 
first went forward to the trenches. From the time, about 
the middle of July, when the first battalion of California 
men located the camp at Tambo, which G-eneral Anderson 



OUR BOYS SMELL POWDER 163 

afterward named Camp Dewey, outposts had been stationed 
regularly somewhere near the insurgent line. When the 
Colorado men were sent to camp with the other battalions 
of the First California they sent outposts out also and got 
into the trouble of which you have been told. Finally, 
when the camp grew to its present size and there was pros- 
pect that it would grow still larger, it became undesirable 
to have the insurgents in our front. There was no tell- 
ing when the Spaniards might make a rush and drive them 
back, as they were reported to have done that night the 
Colorado men turned out the whole camp. So General 
Greene sent to Aguinaldo, in General Merritt's name, and 
asked to have the insurgents restrained from stirring up 
the Spaniards every night. The high firing sometimes 
dropped shells and bullets among our outposts^ and it 
wasn't a good thing anyway to have another force between 
us and our enemy. So the insurgents were withdrawn 
from their outposts all along our front, clear over to Pasay 
as the maps have it, or Pineda, as the people call it, and 
on Friday our troo23s were sent forward to take their place. 

It was the lot of the Colorado men first to take position 
directly in front of the enemy. Two battalions went for- 
ward under Lieutenant-Colonel McCoy and the third bat- 
talion was held in reserve. Colonel McCoy saw at once that 
the old insurgent trench was untenable. It was in a bad 
place, easily flanked, and there was good cover in front of 
it. Beyond the right end there was thickly wooded coun- 
try, through which the enemy could make an advance with 
good chance of escaping observation. Colonel McCoy de- 
cided to advance the line to the old Capuchin Chapel, 
which stood in the middle of the field in front of the old 
insurgent trench. He looked over the ground with his 
engineers and then laid out the line of the intrenchment. 

It was 1 o'clock in the afternoon when the men went to 
work on the ditch. It had been raining pretty steadily 
for a week, and there were heavy squalls at frequent inter^ 
vals that afternoon, but most of the time the Spaniards 
had an entirely unobstructed view of the Americans and 
what they were doing. They took note of it occasionally 
in a disinterested sort of way by sending a Mauser bullet 
down now and then to investigate. The messengers were 
almost all very high and no damage was done to our 



164 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

men, who kept at work, undisturbed by the desultory 
shooting. The Colorado boys had the making of a good 
breastwork done when they were relieved in the morning 
by the First Nebraska Regiment. The ditch, trench, out- 
work, or whatever you call it, was simply a lot of dirt 
piled up in a line that ran at right angles to the beach and 
the main road to Manila — Camino Real — and extended 
across the 250 yards, more or less, between them. It 
crossed fairly open country, on ground that is reasonably 
high for that locality. It is level and perhaps six feet 
above the sea, highest just at the beach line. A line of 
bamboos fringes the east side of the Camino Real and a 
similar line runs all along the edge of the beach. 

The Nebraska boys kept up their work on the breast- 
work all day Saturday, and the Spaniards paid them no 
more attention than they had paid to the Colorado boys 
the day before. The Nebraska men worked on both sides 
of their parapet, making two ditches, the dirt from both 
of which they heaped on the long pile that gradually rose 
to a height of nearly seven feet all along the line. Behind 
the parapet the ditch was made wide but shallow, so 
that water would not stand in it. Vain hope ! Water will 
stand in a boot track anywhere on that field after such 
rains as we are having now. 

About seventy yards west of the road stands the ruin of 
an old Capuchin chapel. It was in good condition when 
this rebellion began, but many bullets and shells have 
wrecked it almost completely. In the centre of it north 
and south a wide hall runs through from east to west. On 
the east the trench began just north of the big double 
door that, opened into this hall and ran straight to the 
road. On the west, on the sea side, the trench joined the 
chapel at the north corner. Earth was piled against the 
north end of the chapel to the height of six or seven feet, up 
to the level of the two iron-barred windows. At the beach 
the parapet jumps forward about five yards and then 
swings across the eight or ten yards of beach to the wreck 
of on old caisson, such as the Spaniards used in Cavite to 
fill with rocks and put in front of their ships as improvised 
armour. At the base of the inside of the parapet there is 
a solid shoulder projecting out about two feet all along 
the line for the men to stand on when they rise up to fire 



OUR BOYS SMELL POWDER 165 

over the earth work. Along the top of the parapet there 
are notches and peepholes for the lookouts. 

On Saturday, July 30, the work was far enough advanced 
to place some artillery in position, and light batteries A 
and B of the Utah Battalion sent forward two guns, each 
with eight men to a gun, under commandof their Lieuten- 
ants. The guns of Battery A were placed on the right of 
the chapel, about equidistant from it and the road. Bat- 
tery B's guns Avere placed at the left of the chapel, a little 
to the east of the line of bamboos that fringes the beach. 

The Spaniards kept whacking away at our boys occasion- 
ally on Saturday but did no damage whatever at the 
trench. Further down the road, however, at the barricade 
where the footpath crosses the road north of the Pasay 
road they drew the first American blood that was let in 
the conquest of the Philippine Islands. Private W. H. 
Sterling of Company K, First Colorado, was the man hit. 
His regiment had been relieved by the Nebraska boys at 
10 o'clock and was returning to camp. As he was march- 
ing along a bullet that had been fired high came down the 
road, and took him in the muscle in the upper part of the 
left arm. It stung and it bled, but it didn't hurt very 
much and did no serious damage. Sterling will soon be 
about his work again as if he never had been hit by a 
Spanish bullet. 

On Saturday night the Spaniards put a little more spirit 
into their work, and peppered away in lively fashion. The 
breastwork was nearly finished, and the Nebraska boys 
took no chances by trying to go on with their work at it. 
Colonel Bratt had them all inside the parapet. They kept 
as sharp a lookout as was possible in the nasty night, and 
for the rest sat tight, making no reply to the Spanish fire. 
The result was that no one was hurt. They had thrown 
pickets out to their right, across the road beyond the line 
of intrenchment. There was no effort to flank them, and 
the pickets had no work to do. The Utah artillerymen 
tore up part of the floor of the old chapel and built plat- 
forms for their guns to keep them out of the mud and 
water as much as possible, and to make a comparatively 
easy place for handling them. The embrasures were 
strengthened and closed up as much as possible, and when 
that was done the rest of the lumber was turned into shacks 



l66 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

beside the guns, into which the young artillerymen from 
Utah crawled and went to sleep, sheltered from the rain, 
and as little concerned about the Spanish bullets as they 
were about the water, which fell in torrents from the un- 
friendly skies upon the Nebraska infantrymen. 

On Sunday morning, July 31st, the Tenth Pennsylvania 
relieved the First Nebraska in the trench, and a new 
detachment of Utah men went up to man the four guns of 
their batteries. The men worked along that day completing 
the parapet and strengthening it and were undisturbed by 
the Spaniards, who were hardly wide enough awake to keep 
up the desultory fire with which they had tried to annoy 
the Colorado and Nebraska men on the two previous days. 

The Spanish trench ia about 850 yards from that occu- 
pied by the Americana. It begins at the beach south of 
the magazine, outside the old fort at Malate, and runs 
northeast until it clears the fort, then turns to the east 
and runs in a straight line well out beyond the Camino Real. 
It is a solid-looking fortification, with plenty of rocks in 
the parapet, and topped with sand-bags. In front of it, 
to the south, a small creek wriggles about over the low, 
swampy field. A road which leads from the fort to the 
Camino Real crosses this creek by a stone bridge, which 
has been piled high with sand-bags. About 150 yards in 
front of our trench a little strip of tall grass rnns across 
the open field from the beach to the road. Further north 
about 150 yards runs the trench the Spanish occupied at 
first, but from which they retreated a couple of weeks ago 
when the insurgents got their battery of old smoothbores 
at work down the road a little way. The country between 
the two trenches is low and level. About the Camino Real 
the field, which is fairly open nearer the beach, is full of 
bunches of scrub, here and there a banana growing wild, 
a clump of acacias or a bunch of bamboos. It's just the 
kind of country for men who are game enough to sneak 
up on their enemy and try to pot him when he doesn't 
suspect any danger. 

East of the Camino Real, behind our position, the 
country is low and swampy, with a few paddy fields, and 
much bamboo and banana scrub. In front and to the 
right of our position the field is fairly open, but there is 
considerable scrub. There the ground is higher. 



OUR BOYS SMELL POWDER 167 

Ultimately onr work will extend across this field. Just 
now the trench is little more than begun. 

Of just what happened on Sunday night there always 
will be many stories. There are a great many going about 
now, some of them decidedly contradictory, and more of 
them are fulminating. The one which has perhaps more 
supporters than any other, and enjoys besides the merit, 
or at least the fact, of having been accepted by General 
Greene and published in General Orders, is that the 
Spaniards attempted to flank our line. That may be true 
but probably is not. There is one circumstance which is 
accepted by the believers of this story as absolute proof of 
its accuracy. That is that in the fight which occurred 
our men going up as reinforcements were subjected to a 
cross fire. Some Spaniards may have left their trench and 
crawled out into the scrub in front and to the right of our 
right of line, then resting in the Camino Real at the end 
of the trench but I am satisfied that there was no general 
movement on the part of the Spanish and no attempt to 
turn our flank. The cross fire undoubtedly was due to the 
fact that the whole Spanish line, which is much longer 
than ours, was engaged. The pickets of the Tenth Penn- 
sylvania were driven in. They had been posted for the 
most part directly in front of their regiment, but some of 
them were east of the road and anead of the line. 

There are two facts against the theory of a Spanish 
attempt to turn our flank, first, that the fire of the 
Spaniards was very heavy and that most of it was by volley, 
which it could not have been from men scattered about in 
the scrub brush and grass ; second, that the outposts of 
the second platoon of Battery K. Third United States 
Artillery, were not driven in and did not come in until 
they were relieved at their station on Monday morning. 
This platoon of K Battery was stationed on the Pasay 
road in reserve. Lieutenant Kessler sent forward four or 
five Cossack posts — four men and a non-commissioned 
officer. These outposts were stationed to the right and 
ahead of our line, but through all the heavy firing of the 
night they made no report. 'No Spaniards came their 
way, a very singular fact if there was an effort to turn our 
right flank. 

It seems much the most probable that this is what 



l68 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

happened : The Spaniards, having recovered from their 
lethargy of a few da3'S, concluded to stir things up. They 
had not been stirred up themselves for several days. The 
insurgents had not been there to harass them, and our 
men had orders not to begin an engagement. The Span- 
iards must have known that the insurgents had been with- 
drawn from the trenches and that the Americans were in. 
There is no more resemblance between our trench and the 
insurgent affair than there is between a clipper ship and 
a coal barge. Accordingly, about 10 o^clock on Sunday 
night, the Spanish fire took on a regularity which showed 
that there was definite intention and purpose somewhere 
in the camp. The bullets began to whistle about our 
fellows in droves. The guns at Malate opened up also, 
and their roar, the shriek of their shells and the loud 
cracking report of bursting shells added to the other gen- 
eral evidence to the Pennsylvanians that they were under 
fire. The Spanish fire, heavy as it was, was harmless as 
long as our men kept down behind the earthwork. But 
the Pennsylvanians could not resist the temptation to 
return the fire, and straightway the trouble arose. 

It was a terrible night. Rain fell incessantly and in 
torrents. A fierce wind drove it across the fields and into 
the trench, under the little shelter the men had thrown up. 
A quarter moon struggled to force a little light through 
the heavy clouds and succeeded only in making a ghostly 
glow, through which all objects showed black and awful. 
The long bamboos were tossed about by the wind that 
roared through giant acacias and mangoes with the rush 
and noise of a Niagara. The little clumps of bamboo and 
acacia that dotted the field in front of our line bobbed 
about in the gal^ and were beaten down by the rain in such 
fashion that they made the best kind of cover for venture- 
some devils — if there are any such among the Spanish — in 
crawling out to attack our line. The ditch behind our 
parapet filled up with thin mud. Little streams of mud 
ran down the embankment into this little lake. The plat- 
forms built by the Utah boys for their guns were four 
inches under mud, and still the rain drove down in blind- 
ing sheets. 

Colonel Hawkins being on the sick-list that night, the 
Tenth Pennsylvania was in command of Major Cuthbert- 



OUR BOYS SMELL POWDER 169 

son, the senior Major. The Lieutenant-Colonel is in 
Pennsylvania recruiting the regiment up to its full strength. 
There are only two battalions here. Major Cuthbertson 
sent Company A in on the left of our line. They manned 
the trench at the beach. H Company was posted on both 
sides of the guns of Battery B of Utah. C Company oc- 
cupied the space between Battery B and the old chapel. 
On the other side of the chapel I Company was posted, 
with Battery A of Utah Light Artillery. K company — 
support — was in the barricade, where the old insurgent 
trench joined the Camino Real, and B Company — also 
supports — was on the Camino Eeal at the first barricade. 
D and E companies, under Major Bierer, were held in 
reserve, posted at McLeod's house, in rear of the insurgent 
trench, on the beach, and used by our forces for a field 
hospital. This house was occupied by its owner, an Eng- 
lishman, when this row began, but long ago he gave 
it up. It has been shot through and through from both 
sides and is ruined, Where the Pasay road turns off from 
the Camino Real Lieutenant Krayenbuhl was posted with 
the first platoon of Battery K, Third United States Ar- 
tillery, as infantry. Up the Pasay road, almost to the 
village. Lieutenant Kessler was posted with the second pla- 
toon of Battery K, each platoon about eighty men strong, 
headquarters guard, camp guard and detailed men counted 
out. This was stronger than the companies of Pennsyl- 
vania men, who have only about eighty-five to a company, 
all told, and the details now are very large. 

Soon after the Spaniards began their regular and heavy 
fire the Pennsylvania pickets began to come in. They 
had been posted in Cossack outposts almost directly in 
front of our line, about seventy-five yards distant. Some 
of the posts extended over to the right of our line, and 
should have been in touch with the posts set by Lieutenant 
Kessler from Battery K. They were not in touch with 
the regulars, however, because they returned to the trench 
and reported that they were driven in, whereas the regu- 
lars never were heard from, and were relieved next morning 
at their stations. There had been heavy firing on their 
left nearly all night, they reported, and they had taken 
some part in replying to it, but no enemy had appeared 
before th^m and they had suffered no loss. 



I/O OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

When the Pennsylvania pickets came tumbling back 
.nto their trench, they reported that the enemy was in 
force on our right front and was trying to flank us. That 
was serious business. Major Cuthbertson brought K and 
B companies up the Camino Eeal into the trench at once 
and sent word to Major Bierer to come forward with D 
and E companies and go in on our right across the road. 
While this was going on, the firing of the Spanish was 
maintained at a terrific rate. The crack of their Mauser 
rifles, short, sharp, spiteful, was like the long roll beaten 
on a giant drum. It was punctuated continually with 
the bursting of the shells they were throwing from the 
fort at Malate. The American reply was as vigorous. At 
the start the Pennsylvania men fired by volley and did it 
well. The roar of their old Springfields all loosed off 
together was like the report of a 10-inch rifle. It was 
almost impossible to tell in Cavite whether it was volley 
firing or cannonading. At times it sounded as if the 
Ealeigh, which had taken the Boston^s place off Camp 
Dewey, had moved up opposite Malate and opened on the 
Spaniards with her 8-inch rifles. The artillerymen from 
Utah were as cool as if they were bathing in their favourite 
salt lake. They got their four guns into action in a 
hurry, and kept them there with a regularity that was 
undisturbed by the terrific assault made on them by the 
Spaniards. Small as they had made the embrasures for 
their guns, they were yet large enough for a hailstorm of 
Mauser bullets to sweep through. How more of the men 
were not hit can never be explained. The steel-cased 
bullets kept up a constant ringing on the metal of the 
cannon, but only one struck a gunner, and he got off with 
a flesh wound in the arm. Lieutenant Gibbs of Battery A, 
standing with his right hand resting on the wheel of one 
of his guns, got an illustration of how close one may come 
to being hit. A bullet struck the tire of the wheel just 
inside his thumb and passed under his hand, leaving a 
little burned strip across his thumb where it passed. 



IT BECOMES A BUSINESS FIGHT 171 

CHAPTER XXVII 

IT BECOMES A BUSII^ESS FIGHT 

'3y this time it was a business fight. The Spanish 
we e using their magazines and firing by squads. A great 
deal of the fire was high, some of it very high, but never 
before had any of our boys seen the Spanish anywhere 
near so accurate, and some of the Americans had been 
under their fire in the insurgent trenches many times. 
The bullets were flying over their heads in swarms. They 
whizzed, they whistled, they sang as a telegraph wire does 
in a wind. They zipped, they buzzed, they droned like a 
bagpipe far away, like a JunelDug seeking a light on a hot 
night, like a blue-bottle buzzing against a window pane. 
They beat against the outside of our embankment with a 
sound like hailstones striking soft mud, like the faint 
hoofbeat of the horses going up the backstretch in the 
Suburban as it comes to you on the patrol Judge's stand 
at the middle distance. They rattled against the old 
Capuchin chapel and ripped through its iron roof with a 
noise such as children make with a stick on a picket fence 
running along and drawing the stick across the pickets, 
or like a man drumming on a window-blind. 

Did you ever hear the cook beating up eggs on a platter 
with a big spoon ? If that noise were magnified a thou- 
sand times it would give a suggestion of the tattoo the 
bullets beat on that old chapel. And all this time there 
were the shells. Men who were in the civil war say the 
shells came through the air saying ^' Where is you ? where 
is you ? ^' all run together. They sound like the ripping 
of silk, and they give you the same feeling down the back 
that it does to pull string through your teeth. The shells 
smashed through the poor old chapel and burst inside. 
They burst as they struck its heavy brick walls ; they burst 
short ; they struck our embankment and burst ; they burst 
over the heads of our men ; they flew high and went 
down the fields, bursting sometimes among our men hurry- 
ing up to reinforce the Pennsylvanians ; they burst along 



172 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

the Camino Real ; they were almost as thick as the bullets, 
and yet, strange as it seems, there is record of only one 
man who was hurt by a shell, and he was not at all seriously 
wounded. He was Second Lieutenant A. J. Buttermore, 
D Company, Tenth Pennsylvania. A shell burst just in 
front of and over him. A piece of it hit him over the left 
eye and knocked him down. It made an ugly cut, but 
that was all. He got up and went on about his work, too 
busy to stop and hunt in the dark for the piece that hit 
him. 

All this time — it seemed long, but it wasn't — our fellows 
were pumping away at a great rate, and the roar of our 
volleys was warning the officers and men in Camp Dewey 
that there was hot work at the front. The Spanish were 
giving us a practical lesson of the value of smokeless powder. 
Every time our guns cracked a line of flame ran along the 
top of our embankment. Every sheet of flame drew a 
fresh hail of Mauser bullets. Every time a Utah gun 
cracked a Spanish cannon was aimed at the flash. There 
our boys had as good a mark as the enemy, and they did 
their best. It was only guessing at the range by the time 
between flash of gun and burst of shell, and there wasn't 
a stop watch on the line to give greater accuracy. But 
they did good work, and they fired as coolly as if they were 
at target practice. Their work was invaluable. Not only 
were they perfectly calm and in command of themseves, 
but they helped to steady their friends from Pennsylvania, 
who were beginning to get excited. Reports began to go 
along the line that the enemy were getting around the 
right flank. The infantrymen thought they could detect 
a change in the direction of the bullets that were whist- 
ling over their heads. More of them seemed to be coming 
from the east, down our line, instead of from the north 
across it. 

While this was going on Major Bierer was taking D and 
E companies into action on our right. To do this he had 
to cross the open field in rear of our trench. It was a per- 
fect hell he had to go through, a hundred yards of open 
ground, without sign of protection, swept by a storm of 
Mauser bullets that came from left, from front and from 
right, with shells from the Spanish guns bursting among 
and around them all the time. There the first American 



IT BECOMES A BUSINESS FIGHT 173 

soldier in the Philippines fell before Spanish bullets. He 
was Corporal W. E. Brown of D Company. A Mauser 
bullet struck him through the body and he fell dead in his 
tracks. All about him men were dropping with bullets 
in the legs or arms. Some who were wounded kept on 
toward the enemy. A little beyond where Brown fell. 
Private William E. Stillwagon of E. Company got the 
bullet that cost him his life. Still the men went on with 
fine courage, and into position in the open field across the 
road at the right of our line. There they held their 
ground, pumping away at the Spaniards as hard as they 
could. 

Now a perfectly natural thing occurred with these green 
troops. Their pluck was as fine as man could ask. They 
were game to try to do anything they were told, but they 
had never been " shooted over," as the English say, and 
they got excited. They lost the regularity of their volley 
fire and their effectiveness decreased tremendously in con- 
sequence. They could not see their enemy in the terrible 
night, and they could not see the flash of his rifles. They 
could not locate him and they were firing absolutely in 
the dark. With the roar of your own guns in your ears 
it is hard to judge by the crack of the enemy^s Mauser 
where he isc It is difficult to tell where a Mauser is fired 
when you have quiet and daylight. How almost impossible 
it is in the dark with battle raging about you, and a howl- 
ing wind driving a terrific rain in eddies and gusts into 
your face and down your neck. 

For an hour the fight had been going on fiercely. The 
noise of it got out to the ships of the fleet, drifting against 
the wind, and the searchlights began to wink and to travel 
over toward the Spanish position. Blessed relief to our 
men. It gave them now and then a glimpse of the country 
ahead of them. They could see something of where they 
were shooting, but still they could see no enemy. Camp 
Dewey had been awake a long time. Lying in his tent, 
almost at the north end of the camp. Captain O'Hara, 
in command of the battalion of the Third Artillery, unable 
to get sleep, had been keeping track of the firing. He 
knew our men had but fifty rounds of ammunition with 
them, and he realised that at the rate they were shooting 
that would soon be expended. He didn^t know what the 



1/4 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

trouble was, but he did know that if they were attacked 
they would want help when their ammunition was gone, 
and they would want it mighty badly. Battery K of his 
battalion was in position as supports, but the orders were 
not to go in unless the Pennsylvanians were in a pinch. 
Captian O'Hara counted the volleys until the firing be- 
came indiscriminate and he understood that the boys were 
getting rattled. He had no orders, but he took a chance 
and he took it just in time. 

He jumped out of his tent, called his bugler and sounded 
the ^' assembly.^' As the bugle call rose over the camp, 
out of their tents tumbled the men of Battery H and into 
line they ran, Krag-Jorgensen rifles in hand and 150 
rounds in their double belts. Down the camp below the 
Artillery another bugler picked up the call. The First 
Colorado men heard it and swarmed out with their guns. 
Nebraska followed suit, and soon half the camp was in 
arms. 

Leaving Captain Hobbs in command of Battery H. 
with orders to be ready to advance at the bugle call and to 
bring 10,000 rounds of extra ammunition, Captain O'Hara, 
with his orderly and his bugler started up the road toward 
the front. A little beyond the corner of the camp he met 
an orderly from Major Cuthbertson coming on the dead 
run. The orderly was blown and frightened. He had 
run through a rain of bullets on his way back for help, and 
it had increased his excitement and enlarged his notion of 
what had occurred. 

'* We're whipped!^' he shouted to Captain O'Hara. 
'' WeVe— '' 

But O'Hara didn't care what else had happened. His 
bugler was already putting his soul into the command 
'' Forward ! " O'Hara heard the answer from Hobbs's 
bugler and Captain, orderly, and bugler charged up the road 
to the front with all the speed their legs would give. The 
bugles sang along the road the steady, reassuring song of 
^' Forward ! " and the men of Battery H, toiling up through 
the dreadful mud, answered with a cheer and a fresh 
spurt. 

Somewhere ahead, O'Hara knew, Krayenbuhl and his 
own battery were. If they had not gone in already he 
would take them. He met men coming to the rear with 



IT BECOMES A BUSINESS FIGHT 1 75 

wounded, and now some coming without wounded, strag- 
gling. 

*' We're beaten," they shouted, and the ready bugler 
gave them the single reply of '^Forward !" The shame- 
faced stragglers fell in with the Captain, the orderly, and 
the bugler, and the little procession swept on toward the 
fight. 

It was hot work in the Camino Real. Much experience 
had given the Spaniards a first-class idea of the range, and 
they lined the road with bullets, for they knew that rein- 
forcements would be likely to come that way. The mud 
was ankle deep most of the way, and, in spite of the rain, 
which was unceasing, the heat was awful. But there was 
trouble ahead, and on they Avent, with the exultant bugle 
singing its single word '^Forward!" Every time the 
answer came sharp and clear from Battery H, and up the 
road they doubled for the dear life. At the crossroad and 
the first barricade, where Krayenbuhl had been posted 
with his regulars, there were only some stragglers, and 
Captain O'Hara thanked God and sounded ^^ Forward !" 
— the regulars had gone in. The stragglers swung in with 
O'Hara, and they went on up the road. The bullets spat- 
tered the mud in their faces and they hugged the bamboos 
at the sides of the road. They advanced in double column, 
one on each side of the road, and so they escaped harm. 
Just beyond this barricade Hobbs and his men of Battery 
PI overtook them. The bugles commanded " Forward ! " 
and on they ran. The song of the bugles carried down 
the wind to the trenches. The hard-pressed Pennsyl- 
vanians heard it and answered with a cheer that drifted 
back to the hurrying regulars and put strength for a new 
spurt into their tired legs. 

As they went along Captain Hobbs felt a sudden sharp 
sting in his right thigh. He put his hand down and felt 
blood and knew he was hit. But his leg worked all right 
and he had his bugler sound ^' Forward ! " and went on. 

O'Hara was right about Krayenbuhl. The young 
Lieutenant had been keeping sharp watch of what was 
going on in his front, and when the American firing ceased 
to be by volleys and ran into an indiscriminate helter- 
skelter, he concluded that it was about time for him to go 
in. Then a man came back with the report that every- 



176 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

thing was going to the dogs, and Krayenbuhl started, 
sending a message to Kessler, over on his right, to come 
along in a hurry. Kessler was expecting the order and 
was ready for it, and in went the men of Battery K on the 
jump. Krayenbuhl got there first and he was none too 
soon. The Pennsylvanians were almost out of ammuni- 
tion. Some of them had four or five rounds left and some 
of them had none. Those who still had cartridges were 
potting away indiscriminately, firing at will. Nothing 
was the matter with them but rattles. They had not been 
hurt. There had been reports from across the road of 
the loss D and E Companies were suffering, and some of 
the men had seen their dead, but in the trench they were 
all right, and the Utah artillerymen, cool as a New Eng- 
land Christmas, were serving their guns with clock-work 
regularity, undisturbed by rumour or by shell. 

As the regulars went in and Krayenbuhl realised what 
was going on he drew his revolver and jumped among the 
excited men, who were firing at will, shouting to them to 
get together, and threatening to shoot the first man who 
fired without orders. His own men swung into action, 
and his command and their work had the desired effect. 
The Pennsylvanians steadied down at once. The first 
volley of the regulars, fired as if it were only one gun, 
brought the volunteers back into shape, and they cheered 
the men of Battery K with a cheer that rang back along 
the road to O'Hara and Hobbs, puflSng up with Battery 
H. The roar of the Krag-Jorgensen volley told O^Hara 
and Hobbs that their own men were in action, and the 
cheer that followed let them know that it was all right. 
But they did not slack up. Their bugles sounded the old 
command of ^' Forward ! ^' and they kept on. 

In the meantime the frightened courier had stumbled 
through the camp and into the tent of Major Jones, the 
master of transportation. The Major had been up and 
about for some time, expecting that reinforcements would 
be sent forward and ready to send extra ammunition as 
soon as the orders came from General Greene. The 
courier was almost in hys-terics when he found the Major, 
and he was exhausted with his hard run of two miles 
through the mud. 

'' Somebody take my gun,^' he cried. ^' Help me to 



IT BECOMES A BUSINESS FIGHT 1 77 

General Greene ! Whereas the General ? Somebody take 
me there ! We^'re whipped ! We^re whipped ! Oh, it^s 
awful ! " 

They almost picked him up and dragged him across the 
lot and up the steps to the General^s quarters in a native 
hut just in front of the camp. The General was up, ex- 
pecting a message-from the front. 

'^ General/' cried the wretched courier, '^ send reinforce- 
ments — send every man, send every company. We're 
whipped, we're whipped ! The Utah battery is wiped off 
the earth. We're out of ammunition. Send help — 
send " — 

General Greene put his hand on the frightened mes- 
senger's shoulder, and said, steadily : 

'^Keep cool, young man. It's all right. We'll take 
care of you." 

After a little he got a more explicit report, but already 
he had ordered the general call to arms to be sounded 
through the camp and ammunition to be sent forward. 
At the general call the bugles rang all over the camp, and 
every man answered with his rifle and his belt full of 
cartridges. Colonel Smith of the First California was 
ordered to go forward with his regiment at once, and 
before the miserable courier had half finished his dreadful 
story the first battalion under Major William Boxton was 
doubling up through the fields and the Colonel in the 
road was overhauling the two artillery Captains and the men 
of Battery H. The Second Battalion, under Major Hugh 
Sime, followed, to be held in reserve, and the Third Bat- 
talion, under Captain Cunningham, in the illness of Major 
Tilden, was left in camp, it being booked for duty in the 
trench the next day. 

At last General Greene got the messenger's story as fully 
as the badly scared soldier could give it, and dismissed him. 
The poor fellow started back through the camp surrounded 
by men eager to hear from the front. 

'^ Did you hear any bullets ? " some one asked him. 

'' Bullets !" he cried ; " they're like hail." 

General Greene at once ordered Captain Febiger of the 

Twenty-third United States Infantry to go out to the 

Raleigh and tell Captain Coghlan to be ready to engage 

the Malate battery. A terrific surf was booming in on the 

12 



178 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

beach in front of the camp, and Captain Febiger had no 
boat. After a lot of work he succeeded in signalling to 
the little Callao, which was lying in shore off the Raleigh, 
to send a boat. Finally the boat got through the surf and 
Captain Febiger put out. It was a tremendous task, but 
the Callao's men were equal to it, and the Captain, wet 
as if he had been dragged in on a lifeline, boarded the 
Raleigh. Captain Coghlan's orders from Admiral Dewey 
put him practically under General G-reene, and he at once 
prepared to respond to the General's command. The ship 
was cleared for action and the crew went to quarters. 
Meantime Captain Febiger had returned to General Greene, 
who sent word back to the Raleigh by the Callao's boat 
that a rocket would be the General's signal for the Raleigh 
to go in. So the Raleigh stood by with guns shotted and 
crew at quarters waiting for the rocket, but to the great 
disappointment of the jackies it was not fired. The reg- 
ulars in the trenches settled the matter, and no help was 
needed from the navy. 

Before Captains O'Hara and Hobbs got to the trench 
with Battery H, Kessler had joined Krayenbuhl with the 
second platoon of K. The steady, heavy volley of the 
Krag-Jorgensen rifles of the regulars warned the Spaniards 
that reinforcements had come, and that a new force was 
against them. Then came Boxton's battalion of California 
men and made a terrible mistake. They marched up through 
the open field under the hellstorm of shells and bullets from 
the Spanish. Captain Reinhold Richter of Company I 
was the first to fall, hit on the top of the head on the right 
side by a bullet which made a pulp of the outer layer of 
the skull. As the men advanced First Sergeant Morris 
Justh of Company A fell, instantly killed by a bullet 
through the body. Every few yards some man fell, but 
the battalion kept on until they reached the old insurgent 
trench. They had not been at the front before since our 
own outwork was built and they thought this old trench 
was ours. They saw firing ahead of them and they heard 
the bullets whistle by. They did not stop to ask what had 
become of our men, but opened fire by volley straight 
into the backs of the Pennsylvanians and the regulars in 
the trench ahead of them. 

Colonel Smith who had caught up with the regulars of 



IT BECOMES A BUSINESS FIGHT 179 

Battery H and was with Captain O^Hara in the trench, at 
once sent one of his officers back to warn Major Boxton of 
his mistake. The officer went on the run, but before his 
message was delivered three volleys had been fired. It was 
impossible to tell what the result of the shooting was or 
whether any of our men were hit. The surgeons say that 
they cannot distinguish a Mauser wound from a Spring- 
field, but that no man was killed by a shot from behind. 
One man was hit in the back, but that was by a Mauser 
bullet, that struck him as he was lying down in the ad- 
vance across the open field. The bullet struck in his cart- 
ridge belt, and that's how it was shown to be a Mauser. 

When the California battalion finally got to the front it 
was sent out with part of the regulars to the support of D 
and E Companies of the Pennsylvanians on the right. 
There and in the march up through the open field most of 
our loss was met with. But there were some casualties in 
the trench. Private Brady of I Company, Tenth Penn- 
sylvania, was killed in the trench, and Private Mcllrath 
of Battery H got the wound there from which he died the 
next morning. Mcllrath had been in the regular army 
for fifteen years, and was a first-class man. He was act- 
ing Sergeant in command of twenty men. "When his men 
got to the trench there was a great deal of confusion and 
excitement among the Pennsylvanians, and Mcllrath 
jumped up on top of the parapet and shouted : 

^'^ It's all right, boys, now weVe got ''em. Get together 
and give it to "em in volleys."" 

He was walking back and forth on top of the parapet 
steadying the men, when he was hit in the head by a 
Mauser bullet and fell back among his comrades. He 
died in the brigade hospital early on Monday morning. 

Private J. F. Finlay of C company. First California, 
especially distinguished himself. For such work as his 
Englishmen get the Victoria Cross. Finlay is detail 
to Major Joneses transportation department as interpreter. 
His mother was a Mexican, and he learned Spanish before 
he did English. When ammunition was sent forward Fin- 
lay was in charge of the train. He had eight carromatta 
loads of it, each carromatta with a native driver. He 
started when the Spanish fire was hottest and went straight 
up through the open fields. The bullets buzzed and whis- 



l8o OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

tied all about him. They ripped through the tops of his 
carts, and one of them hit one of his drivers in the leg. 

Finlay kept on as if he were going after corn on a 
pleasant afternoon until he reached the old insurgent 
trench. Then he halted his train and went forward alone 
to find some one from the Tenth Pennsylvania to whom 
he could deliver the ammunition. That last hundred 
yards into our trench was what Captain O'Hara, a grizzled 
veteran who has seen a-plenty of hot work called a " very 
hot place.''' It was swept incessantly by Spanish bullets. 
But Finlay hunted around until he found his man, went 
back and got his carromattas, and started forward. One 
of his ponies was shot just in the rear of our trench. 
Finlay took it out of the cart and with the native driver 
hauled the cart along to its place, delivered his cartridges, 
and started back. 

On the way he found Captain Richter lying in the field 
where he had fallen. He jumped out of his carromatta, 
put the Captain in, and started on. Pretty soon he found 
another wounded man. That one was picked up, too, 
and back he went to camp. Then he turned the wounded 
over to the surgeons and got orders to take ten car- 
romattas to the front and bring back the wounded. 
Back over that bullet-swept field he went again, as cool 
and unconcerned as if on a drive through Grolden Gate 
Park, did his work, brought in the wounded, and turned 
in to get what sleep he could before the hard day's work 
began soon after daylight. 

After he had sent forward everything that he could to 
help the men at the front, General Greene went out him- 
self. By this time it was after 2 o'clock and the worst 
of it was over. The regulars were pumping in heavy 
volleys, and the Utah boys were cracking away at their 
undisturbed target practice and the '' attempt at flanking " 
was " repulsed. '' General Greene stayed at the front 
until after 3 o'clock, and then returned to camp. At day- 
light there was a sharp burst of firing by the Spaniards, 
but our men did not respond, and there was no damage 
done. The wounded were all brought into camp, and 
the serious cases were treated at the brigade hospital ; 
the others were taken care of at regimental hospitals or 
went to their tents. 



IT BECOMES A BUSINESS FIGHT l8l 

In the afternoon the eight dead were buried in the yard 
of the old convent at Maricaban, back of the camp. There 
were no coffins available, so each man was sewed up in 
his blanket, and an identification tag was sewed fast to it. 
They were buried all in one trench, and headboards were 
set up to mark the graves, bearing the names of the dead. 
The Chaplain of the Tenth Pennsylvania took a careful 
description of the place and the graves, with the names 
and records of the dead. 

The surgeons worked all day over the wounded and did 
not get through until 9 o'clock in the evening. They 
found several very serious cases, some of which have since 
resulted in death. 

On Monday two battalions of the First Colorado and 
the third battalion of the First California were sent into 
the trenches with a new detachment of the even-tem- 
pered Mormons. They finished the work on the embank- 
ment, and the California men, who went in on the right 
of the road where D and E companies of the Pennsyl- 
vanians suffered so severely the night before, began to dig 
a trench for themselves. It was a nasty, slimy place they 
had and hard work intrenching. Just as they had got a 
ridge of mud about two feet high thrown up in front of 
them the Spaniards cut loose again. A red-hot fire was 
kept up all night and the Californians responded with 
vigour. One man was shot through the left shoulder, but 
it was only a flesh wound and not serious. 

When the evening performance opened, the Colorado 
and Utah men in the trenches replied hotly, the infantry- 
men firing volleys that were hard to tell from big gun 
firing, and the IJtah men blazing away in their old level- 
headed fashion. The practice of the Spanish gunners 
was excellent and the shells burst all about the intrench- 
ment. They paid particular attention to the guns of 
Battery B of IJtah. Finally one shell came through the 
embrasure and burst on top of the gun, knocking off the 
sights. The Utah men had a shrapnel shell in their gun 
at the time, and they let it go. It burst apparently right 
where the flash of the Spanish gun had been seen, and the 
Spanish gun was heard no more that night. Whether it 
was disabled or not cannot be told. 

Just after the firing began Private Fred Springstead, D 



l82 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Company, First Colorado, was killed. He was posted as 
lookout and was peering over the top of the parapet. A 
Mauser bullet struck him in the left eye and went through 
his head, killing him instantly. His head dropped on his 
hand, but that was a common action with the lookouts, 
and no attention was paid to it by his comrades until he 
collapsed and fell down. The ball struck him so quickly 
that it did not mark the eyelid, and when the lid was 
closed no mark of the wound showed. One man in G 
Company was shot in the thigh that night. That sums 
up the loss. 

Most of the night the Colorado men sat still and let the 
Spaniards waste their ammunition. At daylight there 
was a sharp fire by the Spaniards for twenty minutes. 
They shelled the old chapel with excellent aim, their shells 
bursting in and around it constantly, but doing no damage 
to our men. The lookouts constantly reported that they 
could see Spaniards crawling up toward our line, and 
several officers urged Colonel Hale to go over the breast- 
work and capture them. But Colonel Hale wisely refused. 
Some of his men surely would have been killed, and the 
loss of one man would not have been compensated for by 
the capture of the whole Spanish advance. We have more 
prisoners now than we know what to do with, and the cap- 
ture of these would not have done any good ; it wouldn^t 
have put us any nearer Manila. 

Captain Richter^s case was very serious, but the surgeons 
hoped for his recovery. The bullet had an explosive effect 
and smashed the outer layer of the skull into pulp. The 
inner layer was depressed on the brain so that the Captain 
was unconscious. Craniotomy was performed and the de- 
pressed bone was lifted. As soon as the Captain recovered 
consciousness he opened his eyes and said to Dr. Dey- 
walt, who was watching him, '' How are the boys ? " 
His thoughts were with his company. He died this 
morning. 

General Greene issued a general order congratulating 
the Tenth Pennsylvania and the Utah Battery on their 
'^gallant stand in the face of superior forces ^' and their 
repulse of an " attempt to turn our right flank." He also 
complimented very highly the Third Artillery and the 
First California on their work in advancing '^ under a 



THE EVANESCENT ENExMY I83 

galling fire " to reinforce the frightened Pennsylvanians. 
This was very nice and let the Pennsylvanians down easy, 
but the fact remains that the Avhole affair was useless and 
not a life was lost or a man hit necessarily. Nothing 
whatever is gained by trying to fight the Spaniards at 
that place. When everything is ready the guns of the 
navy can chase the Spaniards away very quickly and lay 
open the way into the city. Until then every attempt to 
advance at that place is foolish. 

Admiral Dewey was greatly disappointed about the 
fight. He had taken the fleet without the loss of a man, 
and he wanted to take the city the same way. He was 
confident he could do it, and was only waiting for the 
monitors to come so as to be prepared for any possible 
German trick. If the Pennsylvanians had been content 
to wait, we might have marched into Manila without a 
man lost. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE ETANESCEJq-T E^q^EMY 

Cayite', Aug. 6. — They're at it again to-night over 
there south of Malate. As this is written the distant dull 
report of big guns drifts in the open windows over the 
swash of the waves against the rocks that line the beach. 
The moon is breaking through the clouds and lighting up 
the bay, but it does not blot out the long silver beams 
that start from the American warships and focus on the 
Spanish fort. Dewey's ships are furnishing light for the 
gunners in our lines. When the red and white signal 
lights began to twinkle knowingly to one another this 
evening they spelled out this message : ^' Throw search- 
lights on Spanish forts at Malate, but not on our lines to 
southward." 

On the night of Aug. 2, Private W. P. Lewis of E Com- 
pany, First Nebraska, was killed and five other Nebraska 
men were injured by the explosion of a shrapnel shell that 
burst just over the top of the parapet, fairly in their eyes. 
The next day Colonel Smith took his California men 



1 84 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

into the trench with the fixed intention of bringing them 
all back, and he accomplished it by the simple device of 
not firing a shot at the Spaniards. Instead of exposing 
them to blaze away uselessly at an unseen enemy, he kept 
them well under cover of the breastwork and no one was 
hit. The night the Nebraska men were in the trench 
there was the liveliest kind of blazing away all along the 
line, except by the Utah artillerymen, who crawled into 
the little shacks they have built back of the breastwork 
beside their guns and got what sleep they could in the in- 
fernal racket that was going on. The order to the men 
was to fire by volleys as fast as they could. The fir- 
ing began at 9 : 40 and continued forty-eight minutes. 
The Nebraska men expended sixty rounds, and some of 
the Eighteenth United States Infantry, who were with 
them in the trench, fired more than one hundred rounds. 
One of the Nebraska men was asked what he was shoot- 
ing at. 

'' I don't know,'' he replied. " The order was to shoot, 
and I shot." 

'^ Did you see anything ? " 

^' Not a damned thing." 

The next night Captain O'Hara, with his Third artil- 
lerymen, formed the convoy, so to say, of the two bat- 
talions of California men. He agreed with Colonel Smith 
about the firing and his men did none of it. That night 
the Spaniards fired by squads and kept up a pretty regu- 
lar fire all night. In the morning they let loose a lot of 
shells, which burst over or near our line, but did no 
damage. 

Here is the general order which General Greene issued 
congratulating the troops engaged on the night of 
July 31 : 

general order no. 10. 

Headquarters Second Brigade, ) 
U. S. Expeditionary Force, >- 

Camp Dewey, near Manila, Aug. 1, 1898. ) 
The Brigadier-General commanding desires to thank the troops 
engaged last night for the gallantry and skill displayed by them 
in repelling such a vigorous attack by largely superior forces of 
the Spaniards. Not an inch of ground was yielded by the Tenth 
Regiment Pennsylvania Infantry, and Batteries A and B, Utah 
Artillery, stationed in the trenches ; the battalion Third Uiiit^d 



SOME FILIPINO QUESTIONS 1 85 

States Artillery and First Regiment California Infantry moved 
forward to their support through a galling fire with the 
utmost intrepidity. The courage and steadiness shown by all in 
their first engagement are worthy of the highest commendation. 
The dead will be buried with proper honoui'S under the supervi- 
sion of regimental and battalion commanders at 3 o'clock to-day 
in the yard of the convent near Maricabon. By command of 
Brigadier-General Greene. 

A.W. Bates, A. A. G. 



CHAPTEK XXIX 

SOME FILIPINO QUESTIONS 

Cavite' Aug. 6. — The insurgents have been so quiet 
recently that one wonders what has become of all their 
bluster and the talk and the fear, for that matter, that 
they might make us a heap of trouble later in the game. 
But last night they showed an ugly side, and men about 
Oavite say that they are beginning to turn sour. I have 
not seen it myself in the actions of the Filipinos, nor have 
any of my Filipino friends said anything about it, but it 
may be so, nevertheless. They have been pushed pretty 
hard lately. The control of the prisoners they have left 
in Cavite is practically taken away from them by General 
Merritt^s order to feed them in spite of the protest of 
General De Dios, in command for Aguinaldo in this zone. 
Now the convalescent hospital has been inspected by 
Major Cloman, the Depot Commissary, and by Dr. Card- 
well, the division surgeon, and on their report General 
Merritt probably will order that the convalescents, who 
are being slowly starved to death, shall be fed also. The 
other day General Anderson complained to General De 
Dios about the filthy condition of the houses and streets 
of Cavite. The average Filipino is not cleanly in his 
habits. The mud stands in puddles in his undrained 
streets, and he throws his slops out of his front door. De 
Dios admitted that the condition of the place was bad and 
promised to remedy it, but the promise was never fulfilled, 
and so word was sent to him to police the city or get out 
of it. In the army to police is to clean up. De Dios 



l86 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

promised again, but still his promise brought no action, 
and now this notice has been prepared for publication : 

To ALL RESIDENTS OF CAVITE : 

Inasmuch as the forces of the army and navy of the United 
States have taken possession of this town, this is to advise all 
persons in Cavite who occupy houses which do not belong to 
them to vacate them immediately and leave Cavite unless they 
obtain permission to remain. This permission will be given only 
to officers and persons in the employment of the army and navy 
of the United States and those persons actually in the service of 
the Filipino army, and besides to those who have the right, in 
the opinion of the United States authorities, to occupy houses. 
This is announced for the knowledge of these persons and their 
compliance. 

That is the entering wedge, or rather one of them, for 
there have been several. The press for steam launches 
has been so great that some of them have been requisitioned 
from Aguinaldo. Major Thompson, the Chief Signal 
Officer, to whom means of transportation are an absolute 
necessity, began by seizing whatever horses he saw that 
suited his fancy, went on with a demand for three steam 
launches, and now has taken the telegraph wire Aguinaldo 
had strung from his front to his headquarters here in 
Cavite. Of course, Major Thompson pays, or offers to, 
for what he takes, and the only complaint with his work 
so far is from Americans, who declare that he is ruining 
everything by the enormous prices he pays. It is a fact 
that on the first day he took horses the native who came 
to the Quartermaster for his pay thought the price of the 
cheaper one was pay for both. There was some trouble 
about the telegraph line, and the insurgents are accused 
of cutting it. They say it broke. What will you ? 

Early in the week Mr. Williams, the United States 
Consul at Manila, who lives on the Baltimore and can 
carry his whole office in his hat, went over to Bakor to 
see Aguinaldo. He told the Filipino leader very frankly 
that the United States would not recognise the insurgent 
flag, and that his little Government was not a representa- 
tive Government, nor could it be recognised by ours. 
He advised Aguinaldo to give up his private and personal 
schemes and try to become the open ally of the Americans. 
Aguinaldo promised to lay the matter before his council. 



SOME FILIPINO QUESTIONS 187 

All this makes the Filipino leader cut a figure very much 
like a cat's-paw, and it also makes the young man very 
tired. He is ready for anything ordinarily, and if he 
thought it would be to his interest to make trouble for 
the Americans he would not hesitate. 

The Monterey had a quiet trip down as far as weather 
was concerned, but the men had a terrible time with 
the heat. The Brutus towed her 3,600 of the 4,200 
miles to Guam, and with wind and current in their favor 
they made seven knots an hour. The temperature in 
Commander Leutze's cabin rose as high as 102°, and aver- 
aged 92° for the whole voyage. When the monitor was 
under her own steam she made eight knots. She was 
nine days coming from Guam, the last half of the voyage 
under her own steam. She came through the San Ber- 
nardino Straits and saved the long journey around the north 
end of Luzon and avoided the treacherous China Sea. 
The men suffered greatly from the heat. In the fire and 
engine rooms the thermometer showed as high as 130° and 
for days at a stretch was over 120°. There was no ice 
and no fresh meat on the ship. Below decks, especially 
in the engine and fire rooms, the men went about naked 
except for a breechclout and shoes, the officers as well. 
The crew were pretty well exhausted when the Monterey 
reached here, but already they are picking up again. The 
work of preparing the monitor for action is going forward 
rapidly. She is coaling up and in a day or two will be 
ready for business. Commander Leutze was busy this 
afternoon with the charts and notes of instruction sent 
him by Admiral Dewey. 

" They seem to expect us," he said with a smile, *'to 
go in and take care of the big guns down on the water 
front. Well, we can do it.'' 

The appearance of the monitor greatly astonished the 
natives in Cavite and San Eoque. They cannot under- 
stand the joy of the Americans at seeing her here. They 
see nothing formidable, in her and seem to think she is 
sinking. Her low freeboard is completely a mystery to 
them. 



l88 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

CHAPTER XXX 

THE *' NIGHT BEFOKE THE BATTLE '^ 

U. S. S. CoxcoRD, OFF Makila, Aug. 12. — All this 
week it Has been ^^ the night before the battle/^ and the 
fighting morning has never come. Last week, in the 
course of an interview. Admiral Dewey frankly said that 
he would do nothing whatever in the way of making an 
attack on the city or demanding its surrender until after 
the arrival of the Monterey certainly, and possibly not 
until after the arrival of the Monadnock. He expected 
the Monadnock between Aug. 11 and 13. He put the 
case this way : 

" Suppose/'' he said, '' that I send in my demand to the 
Captain-General that he surrender and at the same time 
send word to the Admirals of the neutral fleets over there 
that I intend to bombard the city. Then suppose the 
German Admiral replies that he will not permit me to 
bombard the city. I should send word to the German 
Admiral that I would sink him first, and then I would 
bombard the city. And I want the monitors here when I 
talk like that.'' 

Of course, he added, if it became necessary he would 
talk that Avay to the Germans with such ships as he had 
whether the monitors had come or not, bub he did not in- 
tend to take steps which might precipitate such a crisis 
until he was better prepared by the presence of at least 
one monitor to meet it. He was not ready to move when 
he did, but the army compelled him to do so. So on Sun- 
day, Aug. 7, he joined with General Merritt in the formal 
notice which, for convenience sake, is called commonly 
the '^ ultimatum." 

This ultimatum was sent in simply because in the nightly 
fighting that was going on between our outpost north of 
Camp Dewey and the Spaniards in front of Malate our 
men were being killed. No gain of any sort was resulting. 
The whole thing was completely useless and there was no 
justification for the loss of a man. There were two ways 



THE " NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE" 189 

to stop this loss. One was to withdraw our outposts to 
the place where they should have been stationed at the 
start, and where they would have been practically out of 
danger from the Spanish fire. There was no conceivable 
reason for having them nearer Malate, it never having 
been the intention to undertake to capture Malate or Manila 
by an advance of the land forces. BesideS;, Malate might 
have been taken forty times a day without putting our 
forces practically any nearer Manila. The other way was 
to move on the city at once with the naval forces and 
compel the Spaniards to surrender or knock their city 
about their ears. 

The second plan was adopted. The ultimatum was a 
joint notice from General Merritt and Admiral Dewey 
that after forty-eight hours they would move on the city 
whenever they pleased without further notice. Flag 
Lieutenant Brumby took the notice to Captain Chichester, 
the senior English officer, on Sunday morning, and it was 
delivered to the Spanish Captain-General at 12 : 30 that 
afternoon. Augustin had been removed as Captain- 
General, this time by orders from Madrid, and Fermin 
Jaudenes, the Segundo Cdbo, had been put in his place. 
The ultimatum warned Jaudenes to get his women and 
children and the sick and wounded out of the way. 
Jaudenes is a slight, spare man, something like Weyler in 
appearance and in character. He and the old Archbishop, 
Bernardino, had been the head of the fighting party all 
along, and they were much disgusted with Augustin^s well- 
known predisposition to surrender as soon as a perfunctory 
resistance had been made. Jaudenes is still for fight. 
Damn the city, he says, it all belongs to foreigners and is 
better burned down than in the hands of the "■ Yanquis.''^ 
Damn the sick and wounded, and the women and children, 
too ; they^re in the way and they bother him. Let them 
get out as best they can. Damn the Yankees, who have 
made all the trouble. Damn everybody and everything, 
anyway. Jaudenes is in a bad humour. 

The new Captain-General talked the whole thing over 
with the Consuls. Kamsden, the English Yice-Consul 
acting now in place of Eawson Walker, the Consul w^ho 
died the other day of an illness contracted in consequence 
of hardships he suffered in the blockaded city, asked what 



190 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

was to become of the women, children and sick. Jandenes 
suggested that the Yankees had plenty of ships in the bay : 
let them take the non-coml5atants aboard their transports. 
** Very good/' said Kamsden, '' if that were possible. 
How about their food ? '' 

'^ Oh, let the Yankees feed them/' replied Jaudenes ; 
^' they have plenty of supplies.'' 

So that was the end of that proposition. Then 
Kamsden, ' who speaks Spanish like a native, made a 
speech. He piled it on thickly, as the Spaniards like it, 
and told Jaudenes what a great man he was, what noble 
men the Spaniards were any way, and what a noble stand 
they had made in Manila : how wonderfully they had de- 
fended the city against overwhelming odds. They had 
done what brave men could and should do. Honour was 
satisfied by their tremendous sacrifices, and now humanity 
demanded that they should end the useless struggle. 

The G-erman Consul, Kriiger, who sat next to Eamsden, 
put in, in German, that if pressed for his opinion he could 
not agree that the Spaniards had done all in their power, 
and that, as he viewed the situation, as an officer in the 
Prussian Army, honour was not yet satisfied. 

So the reply of the Spanish was a refusal to surrender, 
but a request for twenty-four hours more in which to take 
icare of the women and wounded. As a matter of fact, 
fthey have few and sorry places for their non-combatants. 
The insurgents line the walls ready to pounce upon any 
Spaniard who appears, and are in no mood for a great 
show of humanity. There is no place in the city abso- 
lutely safe from our shells. However, they got the twenty- 
four hours' extension, of course, and in the meantime the 
American ships leisurely completed the business of strip- 
ping down for the fight, which had been going on com- 
fortably and without haste for about a week. The last 
boats were sent ashore, all inflammable materials were 
taken to the navy yard, what woodwork could be spared 
was removed, and some of the top side fittings were sent 
below. Heavy chains were hung in bights along the sides 
of the superstructure of the flagship amidships from the 
turrets, and even the little Callao protected her sides in 
the wake of the boilers, in the fashion in which the old 
Kearsarge prepared to meet the Alabama. Word went 



THE ''NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE*' I9I 

around that the Spaniards meant to fight, and tnat the 
action would begin on Wednesday at noon. 

With the notification to the Spaniards notice had gone 
also to the neutral warships. As he himself said, Admiral 
Dewey sent word to the Germans that he '^ needed that 
stretch of water over there " where they were anchored. 
Tuesday morning brought a lot of activity to the neutral 
warships. There were four Englishmen, five Germans, 
two Frenchmen and a Jap. The Germans were first to 
move. Anchored near them directly off the city, were 
several merchant steamers which had been captured by the 
Americans on Mayday and turned over to the neutrals as 
refugee ships. They were flying the German flag, and two 
of the German warships steamed down the bay convoying 
the refugees to a place of safety, probably in Mariveles 
Bay. The other three Germans, the big iron-armoured 
Kaiser, flagship of von Diederichs, the Admiral : the 
bulky, homely, three-funnelled Kaiserin Augusta, which 
had kept impertinent espionage on the transport ships of 
the First Brigade that day they came up the bay, and the 
seventh-rate Princess Wilhelm, with their strange, new 
French friends, the Bayard and the Pascal, steamed a 
little to the north of their old anchorage and stopped. 

Then there was a division of the sheep and the goats. 
The big white Immortalite, flagship of the English squad- 
ron, steamed slowly south across the bay, followed by the 
Iphigenia, the Swift, and Linnet, and anchored near 
Admiral Dewey's flagship, the beautiful Olympia. The 
other Englishmen steamed further inshore and let go 
their anchors among the American transports. The little 
Japanese cruiser Naniwa, that has seen bloodier war than 
any other ship in this bay, came along, too, and anchored 
near the berth of our Baltimore. So our friends came to 
their friends, and those who would be our enemies if they 
dared flocked away to sulk by themselves. 

At five o'clock on Tuesday afternoon the Concord and 
the Petrel got under way and steamed across the bay to 
the north of Manila. All the way they were in easy range 
of the big 10-inch gans on the waterfront, but there 
was no sign of fight in the Spaniards. These guns have 
been silent since their gunners got that Mayday message 
from Admiral Dewey that if they did not shut up he 



192 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

would batter down the city at once. The two little gun- 
boats, which did such splendid work in the action when 
the boastful Montojo lost his ^eet, anchored side by side 
a couple of miles off the city and in such position that 
their six-inch rifles could make it very interesting for the 
northernmost batteries of the Spaniards. The men turned 
in happy ; the long wait was almost at an end ; a little 
bit more and Manila would be ours and there would be 
shore liberty. All the afternoon they had been working 
over the guns, cleaning, polishing, greasing, getting every- 
thing into shape for the quickest possible response to any 
sudden unexpected call, working the breech blocks and the 
training gear, giving them a last loving pat. Now it was 
finished — and one day more — 

But there is always manana. Instead of one day more, 
the Spaniards have had several. Wednesday morning was 
clear, for a wonder. There were clouds, of course, and 
that was a good thing, for they shut off the sun^s heat, but 
the air was clear, and the shore line stood out sharp 
and distinct, so that the stadimeters worked perfectly and 
the navigators had no trouble in finding distances. Break- 
fast out of the way, the last work of clearing ship for 
action was performed. The surgeons got out their instru- 
ment-cases and fixed up their operating tables. Their as- 
sistants from the pay department went about with cotton 
for the ears of the gunners and patent rubber tourniquets 
for the stoppage of hemorrhages. Preparations were made 
to serve beef tea and light luncheon to the men at the 
guns, and about 10 o'clock or a little after, ^' general 
quarters " were sounded. The ships were about to take 
station when a general signal floated out from the halyards 
of the Olympia, '^ Action is postponed.^' 

Then there was an outburst that would have court-mar- 
tialled half the men in the fleet if it had been reported. 
Everybody talked, and everybody violated the regulations 
in a bunch by making remarks which the Commander-in- 
Chief might have regarded as extremely derogatory to or- 
der and good discipline. But the Commander-in-Chief 
out here knows the temper of his men, and no one has 
ever accused him of disliking a fight himself, so he proba- 
bly took good care not to hear any disappointed criticism 
of his action in delaying. Besides delay was all he could do. 



THE " NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE" 1 93 

General Merritt had come aboard the Olympia from the 
Newport with the news that the army was not ready. It 
had things to do. Men must be moved back further around 
the city so as to head off the insurgents at the surrender 
and get in first. The Filipinos have been plundered so 
long by the Spaniards that they are keen for a chance to 
loot, and mighty little will be left of Spanish possessions 
if they get in first. So the signal went up. It was hard 
to take, but it had to be endured. However, the ships 
were cleared for action and cleared they stayed. The men 
were released from quarters and had their proper dinner, 
and the ward-room men got the battle ports off and a 
chance to breathe. 

At 1 o^clock there came an order that revived hope. 
The fiagship signalled to the Concord and the Petrel to 
get underway and proceed to a station one mile off the end 
of the breakwater. Before the answering pennant was 
halfway down the halyard after replying to the signal 
the order " Up anchor '^ was sounding through the ships. 
'^ Stand by the starboard anchor." '' Heave up,"*^ follow 
quickly, and almost as soon as '' All clear, sir,"*^ was 
shouted from the bill-board the bugle began the ringing 
call to general quarters. Just as two little bantam hens 
ruffle up their feathers and stretch out their necks and 
open their little bills in anger and, charge the foe in 
protection of their chicks, the fcwo little gunboats, with 
guns agape and trained on the city, scurried down to 
the new position. Fairly up under the muzzles of the two 
9.6-inch guns on the Luneta they stopped and let go their 
anchors. The batteries along the waterfront of the un- 
happy city were plainly visible without a glass, and with a 
glass every gun could be made out. We could even see 
the trunnions of one, and the canvas breech covers of all 
the big fellows. We could see the men moving about on 
the Luneta, and the artillerymen standing by their guns. 
A great flag hoisted on a staff on the Luneta, near the 
Archbishop^'s palace, flaunted its red and yellow stripes 
in our faces so plainly that we could make out the Spanish 
arms on the yellow stripe. 

There we lay. What it meant no one could imagine. 
The little gunboats were in such a position that with any 
sort of work on the part of the Spaniards both could have 
13 



194 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

been blown out of the water by a single discharge of the 
big guns. They had time to take the exact range, and 
the only thing they had to consider was the demand for 
the broken meats after they had finished their feast. 
After a while, when it became apparent that the Spaniards 
were not going to fire, our men lost interest again. The 
anchors were hardly firm in their grip on the bottom be- 
fore the checkerboards were out and the men were lying 
about the decks near their guns, playing checkers at 
general quarters and growling because they couldn^t have 
their smoking lamp lighted. The magazines were still 
open and ammunition was lying about the decks, but that 
made no difference to these fellows. They would go into 
action in a corner of hell and never doubt their ability to 
keep the fire out of the magazines. No order came from 
the flagship to change position or to do anything else, and 
so when evening fell magazines were secured, but for the 
rest the ships stood as they were, railings down, guns cast 
loose, bridges barricaded with hammock rolls — everything 
ready to let go in half a minute from the call. 

So they lay all day Thursday, and the officers amused 
themselves by conning the batteries on shore and figuring 
out ranges and speculating about what it all meant. To- 
day has been just such another day. Some relief from 
the oppressive heat of the tightly closed up ships was had 
by temporarily removing some of the battle ports, and 
some additional interest was added to the speculative prob- 
lems by the actions of the launch of the Belgian Consul. 
M. Andre had taken up his residence with his family on 
the supply ship Culgoa, which flies the Belgian flag, and 
his launch was running back and forth between the city 
and our fleet all the time. It was known to a good many 
of us that negotiations were going on, with M. Andre as 
the medium, but their real nature and their extent were 
known to very few who were not communicative. This 
evening it turns out that the whole thing is settled. 
There will not be a gun fired at the walled city unless the 
Spaniards forget themselves and try a crack at some of us. 
If they do that, things will break loose all along the line, 
but it is not likely that they will. They are desperately 
afraid of the insurgents, and desperately afraid that we 
will give the Filipinos a chance at them. They know we 



THE PLAY-ACTING SPANIARDS I95 

have an overwhelming force here as far as they are con- 
cerned, and they fear that if they make a flight we will 
not be particular about keeping the '' nigger devils " o5. 
So they are going to surrender. They will do it in their 
own peculiar ^^ top-of-the-stage" way and we shall bom- 
bard Malate to help them out. They will fire a few guns 
to ''satisfy Spanish honour" and then the white flag wall 
go up. Admiral Dewey has got them without a fight ; 
his long-cherished hope is about to be realised. He is a 
master of the art of diplomacy as well as of the science of 
war. Another item must be added to the things which 
" greater than all things are." " The first is love and 
the second war ; " now diplomacy demands a place. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

THE PLAY-ACTING SPANIAKDS 

Makila, Aug. 17. — There was not much in the capture 
of the Philippine capital by the Americans to satisfy the 
lover of the spectacular. Considered as a show, it was 
disappointing. There was no destruction of an ancient 
city, no splendid sweep of awful conflagration, no soul- 
stirring, desperate resistance — death in the last trench, 
blood-and-thunder business, and mighty little roaring of 
cannon. The '^ mucho boom boom" that had been prom- 
ised the Pilipinos did not amount to as much as the 
salute to the new flag on the Luneta at sundown. The 
tragedy lost its tragic character and became a comedy be- 
fore the performance began, and the performance itself 
developed into pretty nearly a farce, with just enough of 
serious work in it to provoke regretful consideration. Thac 
is, considered as a show. But if the object of the whole 
performance was the taking of a great city with the least 
destruction of property and the least loss of life possible, 
rather than the production of a spectacle for the gratiflca- 
tion of the descriptive writers and artists sent out to re- 
produce it for the people at home, then it was a conspicu-. 
ous triumph for the management, entitled to rank beside, 
if not ahead, of the great performance of the first of May 



196 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

in Manila Bay. He will have audacity who dares contend 
that such was not the true purpose. 

As has been told, the final demonstration had been post- 
poned for several days in order to give the army time to 
make more desirable disposition of troops, and to get 
necessary supplies in readiness for transportation. This 
time was used by Admiral Dewey for the completion of the 
negotiations for the surrender which had been going on 
for about a month. It was just the time he needed, and 
the informal and unofficial work of M. Andre, the Belgian 
Consul who acted as the medium of communication be- 
tween Admiral Dewey and Captain-General Jaudenes, 
resulted in success. 

Fundamentally, the Spaniard is a theatrical person. 
Jaudenes knew he was whipped before ever he took off his 
coat to fight. There was no help for him. But the 
'' Spanish honour ^' demanded consideration, and Spanish 
honour is the most peculiar, intangible and invisible fact 
that has come under American observation out here. 
Spanish honour decrees that the Old Gruard dies but never 
surrenders — cum grano salis — in fact, with a bag of it. 
The fiction is met, and the requirements fulfilled if the 
Old Guard plays at dying, like a well-trained dog, and 
then surrenders, jumping up quickly at the word for the 
lump of sugar reward for good acting. The once valiant 
and honourable Castilian has degenerated so far that he 
actually seems to believe this sort of thing will fool the 
world into taking his farce for a tragedy, and he is so well 
pleased with his acting that if you are not satisfied with it 
and willing to help it along he will fight you, with the dog- 
like patience and indifference which passes for Spanish 
courage and bravery. 

Admiral Dewey knew that, and so he yielded in great 
part to the Spanish theatrical propensity, and accepted 
that condition as an amendment to his terras of surrender 
or fight. Therein the Admiral showed his wisdom and his 
diplomatic finesse. If he had stood for unconditional sur- 
render the result bade fair to be fight, l^o man will ever 
accuse Dewey of shirking a fight when fight was the thing 
to do, but here fight was to be avoided, and the price was 
cheap at a hundred shells fired at a half-deserted old stone 
fort. So the Americans played the fiddle and beat the 



THE PLAY-ACTING SPANIARDS I97 

drums while the Spaniards danced, and our flag waves 
over Manila with not a house damaged except here and 
there one in the outskirts gimletted by occasional rifle 
bullets. 

Satukday, Aug. 13, the day of the '* bombardment" 
— it is easier to call it that than anything else, though it 
is not a descriptive name — was like the other days of that 
week, full of wind and rain, with a mirage-forming mist 
along the shore that gave a false outline for the work of the 
rangefinders. The morning was grey, with a raw, rough 
breeze that made one think of a late September day in 
New York. The ships of the fleet were under way early 
and the neutral fleets and the Germans kept them com- 
pany. The Concord and the Petrel left the station they 
had occupied for two and a half days a mile off Manila 
breakwater and steamed, the Concord to her station oppo- 
site the mouth of the Pasig River, where she could engage 
the 9.6-inch rifle and the battery of smaller guns, and the 
Petrel back to the Olympia, recalled, as it proved, just in 
time to get into play. The bluff old Monterey, with her 
nose awash, slouched along straight in toward the two 
9.6-inch rifles on the Luneta. She steamed clear inside 
the breakwater, and the noses ol her big 12-inch rifles 
were poked inquiringly out of the forward turret just look- 
ing for the fellow who was going to take a pot shot at 
them. Behind the Monterey, well outside, lay the cruisers 
Charleston, Baltimore and Boston, with their 8-inch rifles 
all ranged toward the big Luneta battery, singularly enough 
whatever position our ships took to engage the batteries 
of the walled city, the palace of the Archbishop was always 
practically in range, a fair mark for any shot that went a 
little high or wide. 

Down at the south end of the city — off the old block 
stone fort and the powder magazine at Malate we had been 
looking at so long, the Olympia took station. With her 
were the Raleigh and the little Petrel, and well inside was 
the Callao, under command of Lieutenant Tappan. The 
Callao is the pickaninny that steamed into the harbour some 
time after Dewey^s Mayday victory and began a salute to our 
flag. With the Olympia, also, was the McCulloch, which 
had been kept out of the flrst of May affair. Her men 
were in no mood to be left out this time if there was to be 



198 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

any fighting. On Friday afternoon they sent a committee 
to Captain Hooper with a petition that, if the ship was not 
to go into the action with the fleet, fifty of them be al- 
lowed to land and fight with the troops. Captain Hooper 
was greatly pleased with the spirit of the men, and straight- 
way passed the petition along to the Admiral. Admiral 
Dewey was also delighted, and the result was that the 
McCullpch got a chance to use her 6-pounders. 

The McCulloch's men, however, were not alone in show- 
ing that spirit. The sick lists of the ships showed how 
the men felt. Every fellov/ on the lists who could drag 
one foot after the other reported himself well and ready 
for duty, and the poor chaps who had to stay down — 
they were very few — cursed their unlucky stars. 

As our ships left their anchorage of Cavite and started 
for their stations, the Englishmen also got under way and 
then there occurred an incident that set the sailormen of 
Uncle Sam a- cheering with a will. The big English flag- 
ship Immortalite had been in Mirs Bay that April day 
when Dewey steamed out for Manila, and as his flagship 
passed her, the Englishman's band played American airs, 
v\Ainding up with '^El Capitan.'"' Now, as the Ol3^mpia 
|moved away, the Englishman's band began with ^^See the 
1 Conquering Hero Comes." Before the tune w^as half 
through, the battle flags were broken out from every truck 
and gafl in our fleet. The breeze was fresh and the big 
bright flags snapped like whipcords. Instantly the English 
band swung into ''^The Star Spangled Banner," and every 
man on every ship stood at attention and saluted as our 
ships steamed slowly by. Then, as the last bar of " The 
Star-Spangled Banner" died away, the band of the Immor- 
talite began '^^El Capitan." The American sailormen 
remembered Mirs Bay, and their cheers rang across the 
water. You never have heard men really cheer, you never 
have felt men cheer till you have heard and felt American 
sailors going into a fight. Then you understand what it 
means to be under the Stars and Stripes. 

There was an incident on the Olympia the evening 
before which set the men on edge. The insurgent steamer 
Eilipinas had asked permission of the Admiral to go out 
of the bay and it had been refused. Nevertheless, she 
got under way and stood out near the Olympia. The 



THE PLAY-ACTING SPANIARDS I99 

Admiral was at dinner, with M. Andre for his gnest, 
and in the wardroom the senior officers were entertaining 
some friends. There were guests, too, in the junior offi- 
cers^ mess, and all were seated about the tables discussing 
the possibilities of the next day. To the Admiral came 
hurriedly the officer of the deck and reported the Filipinas 
moving out. On the instant the Admiral answered : 

" Call the men to quarters." 

Mess gear was spread and the red pennant was up, pro- 
claiming to the world at large that the men of the Olym- 
pia were at their evening meal. It seemed as if the officer 
of the deck had hardly left the Admiral's cabin, when the 
bugles began ringing through the ship. If you have never 
heard a bugle in your life, you know what that call means 
the instant you hear it. Alarm, command and haste are 
in every sharp staccato note. The first bar was not finished 
when the men were running to their stations. Spread 
mess gear was scattered again, and the crews jumped to 
their guns and cast them loose. In wardroom and steerage 
the officers leaped out of their chairs with sentences un- 
finished and food half swallowed. The astonished guests 
had hardly time to rise before the mess attendants were 
clearing the tables and preparing the rooms for war work. 
The jackies dashed through on the way to their guns. 
Officers jumped into their rooms, grabbed swords and 
belts and ran for their divisions. For half a minute there 
seemed the wildest confusion. Then order emerged from 
chaos, and in just one minute from the first bugle call the 
Olympiads crew were at general quarters. That was long 
enough, however, for the crew of the Filipinas to see what 
was going on and to be very thoroughly frightened. They 
stopped their ship and sent away a small boat, in which 
Leybe, one of Aguinaldo's aides, came aboard the Olympia. 
Admiral Dewey received him with the cheerful remark : 

" You had a pretty close call, young man. I had a good 
notion to sink you. I believe I ought to have sunk you," 

Leybe protested and apologized and went back to his 
ship, which stayed in the bay. 

When the American ships stood over across the bay to 
their positions ofi Manila, the Englishmen followed fur- 
ther out. As the Immortalite approached her old anchor- 
age off the mouth of the Pasig, the Germans and the 



200 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Frenclimen got under way. The German flagship Kaiser 
was directly behind the Concord, in such position that a 
high shot from Manila would have found her an easy tar- 
get. Also she was in such j)osition that the Concord would 
have been between two fires if she had chosen to open on 
the American. The Immortalite came squarely between 
the Concord and the Kaiser and stopped her engines. 
The Iphigenia followed, and the Americans wondered what 
would happen if the Germans tried to interfere that day. 
But the Germans didn^t try. ^N'obody helped the Span- 
iards play their game except the Americans, and the per- 
formance went off without interruption. 

It was 8 : 45 o'clock when the American ships got under 
way. It took them nearly three quarters of an hour to 
get into position, and then at 9 : 30 the Olympia swung her 
starboard broadside toward the Malate fort and let go two 
5-inch guns. The range had been given by the navigator 
as 3,400 yards, but the mist along shore had-given a false line 
and the stadimeters did not work properly. The shells 
fell short, struck the water, threw up clouds of spray and 
ricocheted over the land high and to the right of the mark. 
The Petrel followed the Olympia with her 6-inch rifles, 
and her range, too, was short. Then the Ealeigh cut 
loose her 5-incli quick-fires with the same short range, 
and it looked from the rest of the fleet as ii the Americans 
had forgotten how to fire or else were playing at war with 
a vengeance. 

The Captains had been informed the day before that the 
surrender had been practicall}^ arranged. They knew that 
not a shot was to be fired at the walled city unless the 
walled city fired at them. They understood that the bom- 
bardment of Malate was simply to give the Spaniards a 
chance to play dead, and to make representations at Mad- 
rid that they had died defending Spanish honour. But the 
Captains had not thought that the Malate bombardment 
was to be all a farce and they were surprised at the bad 
shooting. The Callao steamed close in, near the shore, 
south of the fort. There she was in a position unaffected 
by the shore mist and got the range accurately. Her one 
3.2 gun pelted the old stone fort in lively fashion and with 
straight aim. Xordenfeldts and Hotchkiss cannon pep- 
pered its walls with 1-pounders and her Colt rapid-fire 



THE PLAY-ACTING SPANIARDS 201 

pounded away 400 shots to the minute with a noise such 
as a small boy makes by dragging a stick along a picket 
fence. The tug Barcelo, too, which was taken when Cav- 
ite fell, and was fitted with a Hotchkiss gun in the bow, 
got into the fight. Both were fired at by the Spaniards, 
but neither was hit, except that the Callao was in range of 
the Mausers and stopped twenty-five or thirty bullets with 
no damage to herself. 

The firing from the Olympia, Petrel and Ealeigh con- 
tinued rapidly for a few minutes, most of the shells fall- 
ing short. Then a blinding rain-squall shut ships and 
shore and city out of view. It was thicker than Septem- 
ber fog on the Grand Banks. But through it all the firing 
kept up, and the rumbling roar of the big guns rolled 
around the bay and echoed back from the city. The 
Olympia sent in some 8-inch shells and their angry scream 
rose above the noise of the smaller fire and made a sound 
through the rain as if the Monterey had turned her 12-inch 
guns on the city. Then the I'ain stopped and the bay 
cleared up. The mist was gone, and the navigators 
found out what had been the trouble with the shooting. 
The shore line stood out clearly defined now and the stadi- 
meters showed 4,100 yards instead of 3,400 on the range. 

The firing had slacked up a good bit, except on the 
Callao, but now it began again, and there was no farce 
about it this time. The big shells plumped down in and 
around the Malate fort and sailed out along the Spanish 
lines beyond the fort, throwing up stone and dirt and 
dust of crumbled rock in clouds above the fort. There was 
more than playing dead in this for the Spaniards, and they 
scattered out of the fort in all directions and on the run. 
The flagship signalled the news to the fleet that the enemy's 
cam|) was breaking up, and just then the artillery of the 
army, posted in our line south of the Malate fort, opened 
up. The work of the fleet was nearly finished. A few 
more shells were fired, and then at 10 : 50 the flagship set- 
" Negative No. 1,'^ the order to cease firing. Immediately 
she followed this with international code flags representing 
the letters D W H B, which mean to the men of all na- 
tions '' Surrender." There were a few minutes of delay, 
with no answer from the Spaniards in the cit}^, and the 
flagship signalled to the scattered fleet to *^ close up/' 



202 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Then, as the ships came on by the Olympia, Dewey for the 
second time disproved the saying that he would rather 
fight than eat by signalling, ^' Go to dinner by watches." 

The Spaniards in the city had made no answer to the 
Olympiads demand for their surrender, nor had the white 
flag appeared oyer the city. The arrangements completed 
Vby M. Andre and reported to the Admiral fixed the time 
pf raising the white flag and located the building over 
^hich it should be hoisted. There was some delay about 
it, and Captain Lamberton, on the after bridge with the 
Admiral, turned to the Commander-in-Chief and said : 

^' I don't see that white flag yet over that red roof.'' 

Spanish honour takes these serious ways to vindicate it- 
self. So the Admiral had the international surrender signal 
set again, this time with the interrogatory pennant at the 
top, asking the question. ^^ Do you surrender?" This 
time the Spanish answered, and their answer was amazing. 
It was international '^'^ C F L," meaning '^ Member of Par- 
liament" or ''^Member of Congress." That was a puz- 
zler, but it was determined finally that it meant that a con- 
ference was going on or was desired, and so Admiral 
Dewey sent his Flag Lieutenant, Mr. Brumby, in to rep- 
resent him. The transport Newport, on which General 
Merritt had retained his headquarters since his arrival in 
the bay, had come up near the flagship. Mr. Brumby 
stopped at the Newport and reported to General Merritt, 
who sent Lieutenant- Colonel Whittier, his Inspector- 
General, in to represent him at the conference. 

In the meantime our soldiers had occupied the fort at 
Malate and run up the Stars and Stripes in place of the 
Spanish flag. From the ships their advance toward the 
city could be seen very plainly, and just before they 
reached the wall the white flag Captain Lamberton was 
looking for appeared over " that red roof " where he ex- 
pected to see it. Mr. Brumby used as a means of getting 
to the city the steam launch of M. Andre, flying the Bel- 
gian flag at the stern and a white flag at the bow. Mr. 
Brumby and Colonel Whittier found that a conference 
was what the Spanish desired for the purpose of establish- 
ing the preliminary terms of the surrender. 

General Greene had arrived by this time at the head of 
some of his troops in the city, and he also came to the con- 







CLEANING RICE. 



THE PLAY-ACTING SPANIARDS 203 

ference with the Spanish council. The preliminary terms 
were drawn up. Then Mr. Brumby and Colonel Whittier 
went back to the Newport and told General Merritt. Mr. 
Brumby went on to the Olympia and at 2 : 36 the flagship 
set the signal 4,169, " The enemy has surrendered." Mr. 
Brumby took the biggest United States flag the Olympia 
had, a No. 1 ensign, thirty-six feet long, and started back 
for the city. Two signal boys, Stanton and Ferguson, who 
had been with him on the bridge throughout the action 
of May 1, and in the mock action of this day, begged to be 
taken along to raise the new flag over the city, and Mr. 
Brumby took them. He went in his own launch this time. 
Admiral Dewey gave General Merritt the Zafiro, and the 
General went into the city with some of his staff and 
Company F of the Second Oregon as his personal escort. 

The Spaniards stood in crowds around in front of the 
palace and many soldiers were by the guns, but the few 
Americans had no trouble ; they were masters now, and 
the Spanish knew it. General Merritt found Jaudenes 
in a little chapel of the cathedral, and there they signed 
the preliminary capitulation. *- 

Then Mr. Brumby suggested that the big Spanish flag 
which had been flying all day in front of the walls west of 
the cathedral and the Government building should be 
hauled down and replaced by the Stars and Stripes. 
General Merritt agreed and Brumby and his two signal 
boys started for the flagstaff. In the meantime the steamer 
Kwong Hoi, with two battalions of the Second Oregon 
Eegiment, which had been held at Cavite when the other 
troops went ashore, had moved up inside the breakwater 
close to the city. The troops got ashore after a hard 
struggle with the surf and shallow water and marched to- 
ward the Government building. While they were form- 
ing up and starting out Mr. Brumby and his signal boys were 
busy at the big flagstaff. That big Spanish flag flying 
there so bravely long after the white flag had been hoisted had 
been affronting the fleet all the afternoon. The theatrical 
Spaniard would hoist the white flag, but he would not 
strike his own colours. 

The open space about the flagstaff was crowded with 
Spaniards, men and women, when Brumby and his little 
following of Americans got there. As Stanton and Fer- 



204 C)UR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

guson laid hold of the halyards to haul down the Spanish 
banner many of the men and nearly all of the women were 
in tears. Down the old flag came, standing out stiff on 
the halyards in the strong breeze until it was well down 
the staff. The few Americans watched it fall in silence, 
standing in the midst of a throng of sobbing Spaniards. 
Then Ferguson and Stanton bent the Olympiads bright new 
ensign on to the halyards and started it up on the run. 
Just as it caught the breeze and its folds straightened out 
over the uncovered heads of the little company of Amer- 
icans, the sun, which had never shown himself during the 
week, burst through a rift in the clouds over the Sierra 
Mariveles and lighted up its beautiful stripes and blue 
field. Almost involuntarily the Americans burst into 
cheers at the omen, and just then the Oregon boys swung 
into view with their band at their head. The musicians 
caught sight of Old Glory climbing up that Spanish staff, 
and the next instant the strains of ^^The Star-Spangled 
Banner ^' were ringing over Manila and over the forts that 
have defended the Philippine capital for so many years. 

They were keeping watch on the Olympia, and the 
beautiful flag had scarcely settled into its new position 
above the ramparts of the ancient Spanish city when the 
flagship's guns began their salute to the new sovereignty 
in the Philippine Islands, Quickly the McCulloch fol- 
lowed suit, then the Petrel, then the Ealeigh, then the 
Concord, then the Boston, then the Charleston, then the 
Monterey, then the Baltimore and even the little Callao, 
twenty-one guns from each to the first free flag over the 
Philippines. 

The Oregon band played out its first national anthem 
and the Oregon men saluted the flag with such cheers as 
the wondering and downcast Spaniards standing about 
had never heard. And the last rays of the evening sun 
dropping behind the Mariveles Mountains streamed across 
the ruined and desolate Luneta and fell upon the uncovered 
heads of those Oregon boys listening again to " The Star- 
Spangled Banner," the evening hymn of this first impro- 
vised evening parade of American soldiers on the famous 
Spanish parade ground. 

With the captured flag tied up in a bundle, Mr. Brumby 
and his signal boys returned to the flagship, and the Span- 
ish ensign now lies in the AdmiraFs cabin. 



THE " CAPTURE BY ASSAULT " 205 



CHAPTEE XXXII 

THE ^^ CAPTURE BY ASSAULT" 

But all this has been about the navy, and the army had 
a large part in the day^'s proceedings, with the only real 
business-like fighting that was done. On the afternoon of 
Friday General Merritt issued this general order : 

A combined land and naval attack will be made on the 
enemy's works to-morrow, the 13th inst., at noon. 

It will consist of a naval and" "artillery attack. Our lines will 
make no advance, but will hold the trenches, the infantry 
covering the artillery. 

The First Brigade will hold the right of the line, and, 
operating on the Manila-Pasay road, have for its immediate 
objective the Spanish blockhouse No. 14 and adjoining trenches. 

The Second Brigade will hold the left of the line operating 
along the beach and the trenches adjoining. 

The First Brigade will put eight battalions in the firing line 
and hold three in reserve. The Second Brigade will put three 
battalions in the firing line and hold eight in reserve. The reserves 
of both brigades will be held in column of battalions in the open 
field to the west of the Camino Real and 500 rods south of the in- 
tersection of the Camino Real and the road to Pasay. The re- 
serves will be under the general direction of the division command- 
er, whose position will be on the Camino Real near the reserves. 

The men will take one day's cooked rations, canteens filled 
with water, and a minimum of 100 rounds of ammunition for 
the Springfield rifle and 150 for the Krag-Jorgensen. The 
reserve ammunition will be held with the reserves. 

Brigade commanders will distribute necessary intrenching 
tools among the several organisations. 

The general hospital will remain in camp. Ambulance sta- 
tions will be established on the beach in rear of the left, one at 
Pasay in rear of the right, and one on the Camino Real near the 
reserves. 

All positions should be taken up by 9 A. M., the 13th inst., 
except the reserves, which will take position at 11 a. m. Our 
line will not advance except under the orders of the command- 
ing General in the field. 

Breakfast was ordered for the men at 5 o'clock so that 
everything could be packed up and in readiness for 
taking position at 9. The Commissary and Quartermaster 



206 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

departments had been putting in the extra time General 
Merritt had secured by his request to Admiral Dewey in 
making preparations to move forward the stores and equi- 
page of the army when the advance came. The brigades 
were composed of these troops : Twenty-third and Four- 
teenth United States, Astor Battery. Thirteenth Min- 
nesota, First Idaho, First North Dakota and First Wyo- 
ming, -First Brigade, General MacArthur ; Eighteenth 
United States, First California, First Colorado, First 
Nebraska, Tenth Pennsylvania, Third United States Artil- 
lery, Utah Light Artillery and a company of United States 
Engineers, Second Brigade, General Greene. A detach- 
ment of the Utah Artillery was sent to General Mac- 
Arthur by General Greene for the attack and the engineers 
were divided and half a company sent to each brigade. 
General MacArthur sent Lieutenant-Colonel French with 
a battalion of the Twenty-third United States forward on 
Friday to take position on our extreme right. This ad- 
vance line was made up besides these of the Astor Battery 
and Thirteenth Minnesota and the two batteries of the 
Fourteenth. In the Second Brigade the First Colorado 
boys had occupied the trench the day before and General 
Greene let them go forward in the firing line instead of try- 
ing to relieve them. General Greene had also in the fir- 
ing line the Eighteenth Infantry and Third Artillery. 
They made up the three battalions he was ordered to put 
in the firing line, and the rest of his brigade was in reserve 
much to their disgust. The First California ended the 
column. 

It was after the lull in the fleet firing that the guns of 
the Utah Battery opened on the Malate fort. Soon after- 
ward the detachment sent for General MacArthur opened 
with the Astors on blockhouse 14, which guarded the Pasay- 
Manila road off to the right of the Camino Eeal. The 
artillery kept up a hot fire, and at first the Spaniards re- 
plied to it. But they did no damage, and the terrible cross- 
fire of the fleet chased them out very quickly. As the 
flagship signalled that they were breaking up the advance 
was ordered. The Colorado boys tumbled out of the 
trench in front of Malate in a great hurry and wasted a 
lot of their running breath in cheering. They went over 
the parapet so fast that several of them were hurt, and 



THE " CAPTURE BY ASSAULT " 207 

one poor fellow, Brady of K Company, was jumped on by 
a too eager comrade and his side bruised so that he could 
not go on and was left behind cursing his mate and his 
luck. 

The reserves started up the beach, and General Greene, 
Avith his aides, pushed ahead to catch up with the Colo- 
rado boys, who were scooting along in the advance. 
Colonel Hale had had his men out the night before re- 
moving obstructions in his front, so his way was clear, 
comparatively, for some distance. The engineers who 
were in advance of each brigade were provided with nip- 
pers for cutting wires and with portable bridges for cross- 
ing ditches. As the Colorado men got near the Spanish 
intrenchment they halted and fired a few volleys. Then 
they ran ahead across the stone bridge over Cingalon 
Creek, just south of the Malate fort and stopped again. 

A series of trenches leads back from the fort to the 
buildings in Malate, and through these the Spaniards 
were retreating, firing occasionally at our men. The 
Colorado boys responded with volleys, and then Lieutenant- 
Colonel McCoy and Lieutenant A. McD. Brooks, the 
regimental Adjutant, ran forward into the fort, mounted 
to the parapet and hauled down the frayed and faded 
Spanish flag that had been flying there night and day all 
summer, and ran up in its place a small Stars and Stripes. 
The regiment stayed long enough to cheer and then passed 
on, but this delay, brief as it was, gave the First Battalion 
of the First California, advancing along the beach, time to 
get ahead. Colonel Smith was in command, and he be- 
lieves in getting to the front. The boys waded through 
Cingalon Creek, armpit deep, rather than lose time by 
going up to the bridge, and hurried toward the walled 
city. 

As the Spaniards retreated they went into the buildings 
of Malate and fired on our boys from the windows. The 
Colorado men were after them in lively fashion along the 
streets nearest the beach, with the men of the Eighteenth 
and Third Artillery, further inland, hurrying down the 
streets toward the walled city and shooting into the 
windows, marching in two columns at the sides and firing 
across the streets. The Colorado boys were cheered on by 
their band, which followed them through Malate, playing 



2o8 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

^'There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town To-Night." 
The Spaniards got into the gardens and among the trees 
and pelted away at onr boys merrily, now and then knock- 
ing some fellow over. But the Americans pushed them 
back steadily and at a hot pace, and it was not long before 
Malate and Ermita were clear and the Spaniards were inside 
the walled city. Just south of the wall there is a wide 
open space between the old city and the suburb of Ermita. 
Across this our men marched steadily, although the wall 
was guarded by thousands of Spaniards. But the white 
flag was up and there was no general Spanish fire, although 
indiscriminate shooting was kept up for some time. On 
the whole, the work of the Second Brigade was easy, and 
there was little loss. 

It was the First Brigade that caught the fighting. The 
Twenty-third Infantry held the left of its line, with or- 
ders to keep in touch with General Greene's right. The 
Fourteenth Infantry was on the right, and the Astor Bat- 
tery, supported by the Thirteenth Minnesota Volunteers, 
held the centre. The centre advanced along the Pasay- 
Manila road, and met little resistance at blockhouse 14, 
where the worse work was expected. The shelling the 
blockhouse had got from the Utah men and the Astors, 
helped out by some of the big guns of the navy, had made 
the Spaniards quite ready to quit. They fell back to 
Cingalon and concealed themselves in houses and behind a 
barricade. The Astors pushed forward rapidly and in the 
village met a hot fire. They tried to advance their guns 
to a position from which they could shell the barricade, 
but the fire got too hot for them, and they were forced to 
abandon their guns and retire to cover. The Thirteenth 
Minnesota came along just then, and there was a nasty 
fight for a few minutes. There two Sergeants of the 
Astor Battery and a bugler of the Minnesota regiment 
were killed and about thirty men were wounded. Col- 
onel Orenohine with a battalion of the Twenty-third 
regulars had a sharp brush with the Spaniards in front of 
Cingalon church. Finally Lieutenant-Colonel French 
with the other battalion of the Twenty-third came out on 
the road to the left of Cingalon and the Spaniards de- 
serted their works on the Paco Cingalon road and retreated 
rapidly toward Manila. It was all over in twenty minutes 



THE " CAPTURE BY ASSAULT " 209 

or half an hour, but it was hot while it lasted. After that 
there was only a little skirmishing with the retreating 
Spaniards. 

It fell to Captain O'Connor's company of the Twenty- 
third to take the extreme left of the First Brigade and 
keep in touch with General Greene's right. He was told 
that somewhere in his front was a bridge, to which he 
would come finally if his advance was successful. There 
he was to stop and hold the bridge against the insurgents, 
who were sure to try to get into the city by any means 
possible. It was General Merritt's plan to keep the armed 
Filipinos out entirely. He knew too well how they would 
plunder and probably shoot if they got in. So our men 
had orders all along the line to guard every bridge after 
they had crossed it against insurgents. Captain O'Con- 
nor's company started out on time with the rest of the boys. 
Its way was the rough brush and swampy fields, and the 
men became pretty badly scattered. The company on 
General Greene's right was also considerably mixed up, 
and when Captain O'Connor emerged from the woods into 
a clear space to the east of Malate he had sixteen men 
with him, ten regulars and six volunteers, with only half 
the regulars of his own company. The first bridge he 
came to was a big one, and sixteen men couldn't hold it, 
so he went on toward Manila. As his Corporal's guard 
advanced some companies of Spaniards came in from their 
rear. The Captain opened ranks and let the hurried Span- 
iards through, then closed up and went along. Finally 
he came to a little bridge close under the walls that he 
thought was just about his size, and there he stopped; threw 
his men across and held the bridge. The Spaniards were 
lined up in force on the wall not a stone's throw away, but 
they did not fire, and the Captain had no trouble. 

Colonel Hale and his Colorado men came very near to a 
fight with the Filipinos. After they crossed the Malate 
bridge they left a small guard there and went on to attend 
to the hot skirmishing ahead. About one hundred Fili- 
pinos who came by another bridge got into Malate behind 
the Colorado men and followed them up the streets doing 
considerable shooting. Major Jones, the division Chief 
Quartermaster, was with the advance. 'He had the flag 
planted in the middle of the street ahead of the Filipinos 
14 



2IO OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

and with his interpreter. Private Finlay of C Company, 
First California, started to stop the insurgents. Major 
Jones told the Filipino Captain that no armed insurgent 
would be allowed to enter the city. The Captain pro- 
tested and the Major insisted. Finally it got down to 
" We will," and " You will not." Then the Major drew 
his revolver and said he would shoot the first man who 
advanced. A platoon of the Third Artillery was sent for, 
bat the trouble had been settled before these men got up. 
The insurgents were disarmed and permitted to go on. 

Soon after this a band of between three and four hun- 
dred Filipinos under arms came in across the Malate bridge. 
The alarm was carried ahead to two companies of the 
First Colorado, who were in the outskirts of Malate. 
They fell out of the road and let the insurgents pass by. 
The Colorado men fell in behind them and the Filipinos 
were trapped. After that they were disarmed without 
further trouble, and sent back out of the city. 

There was trouble with Filipinos at several other places, 
but in nearly every instance they were headed off. A few, 
however, managed to get into the suburbs and have a 
good time looting the houses. They were not at all par- 
ticular about confining their work to the houses of Span- 
iards ; any house was good enough for them to loot, and 
the British flag for once was no protection. The insur- 
gents robbed an Englishman as impartially as a Spaniard. 
They put guards out in front of a few houses in Malate, 
but these guards were disarmed very quickly after our 
men got well into the city. The insurgents still occupy 
the priests' residence near the Jesuit observatory in 
Malate, and their flag flies from the front window. There 
has been ample time, apparently, to take care of that, but 
General MacArthur has not had it removed yet. After 
the sharp measures taken with his men on Saturday night 
Aguinaldo got a peremptory order by telegraph from Gen- 
eral Anderson to remove all his men at once from the 
city. Instead he sent Noriel, General in command of the 
first zone, forward with a thousand men. The men were 
corralled very promptly, and now that is one of the sub- 
jects of dispute between Aguinaldo and Anderson. 

Before Captain O'Connor left his little bridge with his 
handful of several commands, a regiment came along with 



THE ''CAPTURE BY ASSAULT 211 

a near-sighted Colonel, who is not very familiar with Gen- 
eral Merritt's face. Captain O'Connor resembles the 
General a good bit, and as he stood beside the bridge with 
folded arms watching the regiment advance the Colonel 
brought his men to port arms and gave the gallant Captain 
a marching salute. Captain O'Connor lost a company, 
but found a General's salute. 

The work of the Signal Corps was extraordinarily effi- 
cient. They followed our left, and at every advance al- 
most kept up with the firing line, one man going ahead 
with a coil of insulated wire, uncoiling it as he advanced, 
and others following with the instruments, so there was 
constant communication with the front, and there was not 
a hitch. The Signal Corps men entered a house in Malate 
just as the Spaniards left it, and before they could get 
their instruments adjusted on a table the firing through 
the house was so hot that they had to lie down on the floor. 

The following extract from a letter written by a staff 
officer, who was very active in the advance, to his wife, 
giving her an account of his personal doings, gives also a 
very clear picture of the work done by our men, of the 
way in which the city was entered, and of the manner in 
which the insurgents were dealt with. It recounts the 
observations as well as the acts of a trained army officer, 
who, as aide to General Greene, was obliged to go over 
very much of the ground, and was therefore in position to 
see probably more of the day's work than any other one 
man : 

^^ Two days before I had made a reconnoissance of the 
position in our front and accurately located the cannon 
in the defences. One of them pointed directly up the 
beach on the edge of the bay, and this one we were unable 
to see with glasses on the morning of the bombardment. 
As General Babcock was wondering whether it was still 
there, I offered to go down and again reconnoitre the posi- 
tion to ascertain with certainty whether the cannon had 
been removed. I started down the beach, concealing my- 
self in the brush on the way, and had approached nearly 
to the river, when the bombardment suddenly opened 
from the ships. All the shells fell short, and as they 
struck the water they ricochetted and whistled over my 
head in such numbers that I was compelled to retreat about 



212 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

a hundred yards, in order to get out of the line of fire. 
A slight lull then ensued in the firing, and I returned to 
my former position, not having had a chance to use my 
field-glasses while there first. A second time the ships 
opened fire, and the shells, again falling short, drove me 
from my position, but I returned a third time and finished 
the reconnoissance, then ran back to our trenches, report- 
ing to General Babcock that the gun had been removed. 
I also made this report to General Greene, and he said : 
* ^0, you are mistaken ; the gun is still there. I can 
see from here about eight feet of it,' and he pointed out 
the place to me. Raising my glasses, I thought, ^sure 
enough there is the gun.' On our arrival at the trench, 
however, after the assault, I found the gun General 
Greene and I thought we saw was a bent piece of corru- 
gated iron lying in such a fashion on top of the trench 
as to closely resemble a cannon a thousand yards away. 

^^ During the early part of the bombardment I climbed 
to a site on the flat tin roof of a white house, through 
which our trench ran, and from there could plainly see 
and report to the gunners the effect of the shots from 
our 3.2-inch rifles, which were being served by the Utah 
Light Battery. They did excellent shooting and much 
execution on the fort, but the principal damage was done 
by two large-sized shells landed square in the fort by gun- 
ners from the fleet. They created havoc and must have 
killed and wounded many Spaniards. 

" Seeing two companies of the Colorado regiment or- 
dered to advance from the trenches I hastily descended 
and joined them. After advancing about a hundred 
yards or so this line concealed itself behind good cover 
to await the bombardment from the ships to grow less 
dangerous. Pretty soon, however, we were ordered to 
advance, and I, accompanied by three civilians, led the 
line through the brush. We stopped once more about 
three hundred and fifty yards from the enemy's position 
and fired a number of volleys. We then made a rush 
across the mouth of a small river which separated us from 
the powder magazine at Malate. We then stopped on tne 
further side of the stream, the men lyi^ig .down behind 
cover, and very shortly the rest of the Colorado regiment 
began to advance in our rear in support. 



THE "CAPTURE BY ASSAULT" 213 

'' As we neared the fort I was anxious to be the first 
to arrive and take down the Spanish flag as a trophy for 
you ; so when the advance began again, I, accompanied 
by the three civilians, rushed forward in advance of the 
line, but it halted again, and the Colonel called us back, 
as he desired to fire some volleys before approaching 
nearer. We reluctantly returned to the rear of the line, 
which just at that time began another advance, and the 
Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment (McCoy) ran ahead 
of his line, and getting the start of me beat me into the 
fort and secured the flag for his regiment. As I ran up 
on the parapet I noticed a very pretty little trumpet lying 
on the bed in a small room and I seized that and several 
machetes (called bolas by the natives here) as trophies. 
Lying under a small nipa shed behind the fort was a poor 
Spaniard badly wounded in the head and still breathing. 
I called him to the attention of the first hospital corps 
man I saw and continued in rapid advance with the line. 

^' As we proceeded from the fort back to a building 
which had been occupied as a barracks by the officers, 
we came under such a heavy fire from the enemy that the 
men took to the trenches and stopped to return the fire. 
I kept on to the house and there captured some valuable 
papers, among them one document which earned for a 
small native boy a reward of $25, a fee I had promised 
him on the contingency that certain information he gave 
me should be found to be correct. This was a very bright 
boy who came into my camp several weeks ago peddling 
cigars. He said that his father was an American who had 
now left the country and he was living with his mother, a 
native woman, in Manila. He spoke Spanish fluently and 
so I questioned him to know if he thought he could bring 
me certain information I was desirous of obtaining. He 
thought he could, and returning to Manila came back in 
four days, with just what I wanted. I paid him liberally, 
and then sent him again to count the number of Spaniards 
who served in the trench immediately in our front. He 
came back with a report that there were seven trenches, 
served by about fifty Spaniards each, with a certain num- 
ber of guns. Knowing the trench was a continuous one, 
I considered his information valueless and thought he was 
trying to play a native trick on me, so paid him nothing. 



214 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

When I captured the paper I discovered that the Span- 
iards themselves had divided this continuous trench into 
seven parts, numbering them from one to seven, and that 
the regular garrison of these trenches was as the boy 
had stated, about fifty men each. Why they should so 
divide a continuous trench I cannot see, but they did. 
The number of cannon he had reported was exactly 
right. 

" While I was at this house there was considerable skir- 
mishing between our men and the enemy, and a poor fellow 
of the Colorado regiment was shot in the neck as he stood 
near me, and has since died. Hearing some Mauser rifles 
popping behind a wall I got a Captain of the California 
regiment to have his men hold their guns at arm^s length 
above the wall and discharge them into the yard beyond 
to drive the Spaniards away. They were making it 
uncomfortably warm for men on our side who were ap- 
proaching along the beach from the rear. The California 
regiment at this point passed the Colorado regiment and 
took the advance. Joining the California regiment I pro- 
ceeded down the street with it and saw Sam Widdifield's 
squad (he is a corporal) very gallantly advance on the run 
and drive some Spaniards out of a yard who had been 
firing at our men approaching on the left. 

Engleskjon, General Babcock^s orderly, had gone back 
for our horses, which we left in the rear, but not being 
able to wait I borrowed a captured horse and soon wore 
him out carrying messages for General Babcock and Gen- 
eral Greene. All this time I was galloping around through 
the streets of Malate (that suburb of Manila through 
which we were then advancing) in which our men were 
skirmishing with the enemy. I requested Colonel Smith 
of the California regiment to leave a small guard over 
every house flying the English flag, which he did. The 
English have been very friendly to us in this war and I 
wanted to see the compliment returned. 

'^ I returned and reported to General Greene for duty. 
He immediately directed me to ride to the front, and, 
selecting a patrol of ten men from the California regiment, 
to advance upon the walled city, reconnoitre it and see 
whether they would fire on me. As Engleskjon just then 
returned with my horse I got on it and taking him with 
me we galloped to the front to make the reconnoissance. 



THE ''CAPTURE BY ASSAULT' 21$ 

but just as we came out on the Lnneta, an open space be- 
tween the walled city and Ermita, one company of the 
Twenty-third Infantry debouched from Ermita along the 
beach and the First Battalion of the California regiment 
came out of the streets of Ermita on to this open space. 
I followed them and before we reached the walls of the 
city we observed a white flag flying on its corner. They 
marched to the street which encircles the wall, called the 
Calle de Bagumbayan, and there halted. 

^' As soon as we had seen the white flag I had sent Eng- 
leskjon to report the fact to General Greene, and after we 
had advanced to the foot of the wall I returned myself 
and reported to him that the enemy had ceased firing. 
General Greene's orders required him to march around the 
walled city and take possession of the suburbs across the 
river on the other side. Before starting back myself I 
directed the halted troops, by his order, to move about a 
half mile around toward the river and then halt to await 
further orders from him. They did move down opposite 
the road which leads up to the walled city from a small 
town in the country called Santa Ana. It had been our 
whole plan entirely to prevent the insurgents from getting 
into the city, in order to protect the inhabitants and 
houses against their looting propensities, but at Santa 
Ana a number of insurgents, seeing the Spanish falling 
back, had been too quick for our troops and had approached 
the walled city from that direction. Coming up within 
rifle range they began to fire indiscriminately at our troops 
(who had halted between them and the Spaniards) and at 
the Spaniards behind them. This caused the Spaniards 
to return the fire and for a few minutes here stood our 
helpless troops (four companies of the California regiment) 
between two fires, knowing, there had been an error and 
powerless to correct it. They deserve much credit for 
being cool enough not to return the fire on either party, 
for such an action might have precipitated what could 
have been nothing but a bloody and useless carnage. 

'' During this firing three men were wounded and one 
shot in the head so badly that he died soon afterward. 
The others were not severely wounded, one being shot in 
the shoulder and the other shot in the hand. I myself 
afterward helped to dress the wound of the one shot in the 
hand, as no physician was near at the time, all being 



2l6 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

occapied with wounded in the rear. All the men carried 
on their persons small packages of emergency dressings, 
and now I hope you will never again say that that little 
package of emergency dressing which I have been carry- 
ing to your discomfort in my grip and trunk for ten years 
is a nuisance and useless. 

^' When I reported to General Greene he galloped to the 
front, followed by his staff and myself, and as we were 
crossing the Luneta, a number of shots were fired at us 
from Mauser rifles by Spaniards concealed in native huts 
off to the right of the open space from which our men had 
previously advanced. I think these were native soldiers 
in the service of the Spaniards, who had been cut off by 
our rapid advance and were trying to make their way into 
the city. They had been pressed pretty hard by the 
columns which had advanced through the streets of Malate 
which were furthest away from the beach, but they had 
been unable to fall back as fast as our men had advanced 
along the beach and that street which was nearest the 
beach. 

^^ General Greene rode up to the wall and had a con- 
sultation with an official who came forward to meet him 
near its corner. Then we turned to the right and started 
along the Calle de Bagumbayan to go around the city. 
When we reached that gate of the wall which enters from 
the road to Paco we met a number of mounted Spanish 
officials, whom General Greene stopped to interview. 
They brought a request that he enter the city to see the 
Captain- General, and accompanied by his Adjutant-Gen- 
eral, Captain Bates, and by Dr. Bourns as an interpreter, 
he went into the city, leaving us to await his return. The 
men were halted, and while resting on their arms freely 
talked with the conquered Spaniards. It is very strange 
how soon soldiers of opposing sides will affiliate with each 
other after one side has given up. While General Greene 
was in the city. General Anderson and General Babcock 
arrived, and soon afterward General Greene came out of 
the city and had a conference with these two Generals. 

*^ We then resumed our progress around the walled city, 
and having reached another road leading into the city 
from Santa Ana, we found another gang of insurgents in 
our way, whom General Greene directed two companies to 
force out of the road on to another street, so as to let his 



THE ** CAPTURE BY ASSAULT** 21/ 

command pass by. One man with a red sash tied around 
his shoulders and very much excited was haranguing the 
crowd, and when directed to move his men into the side 
street by Dr. Bourns, who spoke to him in Spanish, pur- 
suant to General Greene's orders, he said : ' No, we are not 
going anywhere. We are going into the walled city. 
That's what we came for, and that's what we are going to 
do.' I jumped olf my horse and pulling my pistol out, 
shook it in his face and told Dr. Bourns to say to him that 
if he wanted trouble he could have it right off, but if he 
didn't want trouble he had better move his men where or- 
dered to, and move them damned quick. He suddenly 
became very polite, and with many salaams, said ^ Si, si, 
signor/ In the meantime two companies had marched up 
to the side of the insurgents, and, wheeling into line in 
front of them, pressed them out of our way back into the 
side street. Then the insurgents went back that street 
and approached from another direction, but were headed 
off by Colonel Smith of the First California, to whom I 
carried an order to force them back across a bridge over 
the river and hold them there. 

' ' General Greene sent me with a battalion across the 
Puente de Espana, the main and principal bridge leading 
from the corner of the walled city over into the suburbs 
of Binondo and Tondo. On coming back he sent me with 
another battalion across the bridge leading into Quiapo. 
Eeturning from this duty, I informed him there was an- 
other bridge just above the one leading to Quiapo, and he 
sent me back with orders to direct Colonel Smith to guard 
that bridge also. Eeturning to General Greene, I again 
got a message to carry to the Colonel of the Nebraska reg- 
iment, who was awaiting orders in the rear, and bringing 
him up to the front, I accompanied General Greene and 
his staff until all the troops were posted in positions to 
guard the principal buildings of the towns and all the 
main approaches into the outskirts, so that the insurgents 
could be prevented from entering and looting the place. 
This they were very keen to do. 

" All this time, while General Greene's brigade was 
fighting through the city and afterward posting itself for 
protection against the insurgents, General MacArthur's 
brigade, which had entered the outskirts of the city to the 
right and rear of ours, had been fighting near Santa Ana, 



2l8 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Concordia, Paco and Oingalon with Spanish skirmishers, 
and following up in our rear to take the positions on the 
outskirts abandoned by our troops, in order to prevent the 
insurgents from following in our rear. A portion of his 
command had rather a tough fight near Cingalon, and lost 
in about five minutes several men killed and fifteen or 
twenty wounded. He, however, succeeded in cutting off 
all but a few of the insurgents, who slipped in too quick 
for him at Santa Ana. 

^^ All along the north side of the town extending from 
Santa Ana, around in a northerly direction to the bay at 
Malabon, near Caloocan, the Spanish held their positions 
and did not fall back ; so we took up our positions in 
their rear, and although they had surrendered they 
were not relieved from duty in these trenches until 4 
o^clock on the following afternoon. I don't suppose there 
ever was another case on record where two armies opposed 
to each other fought out their differences and agreed to a 
plan to join hands for the protection of a helpless popula- 
tion against the evil propensities of a third armed party. 

'^ The following day General Greene sent me to make a 
reconnoissance and report on the Spanish line extending 
from Santa Ana around northward, and the Spanish still 
being in these trenches, I came in contact with all of 
them. All the officers appeared very friendly and not 
resentful, except one, a Colonel Carbo, who was a fire- 
eating Spaniard and Colonel of the Guias Rurales. He 
was very theatrical in his manner and objected to surren- 
dering as he did, stating that he much preferred fighting 
to the death for his beloved country. 

^' That evening late, as I was returning from my duty, 
I found a drunken American soldier on the street with a 
rock in his hand, having an altercation with three or four 
Chinamen who were trying to keep him out of their house. 
They complained that he wanted to drink the alcohol out 
of their shellac. They were dealers in oils, paints, var- 
nishes, shellac, etc. He was accompanied by a citizen 
who spoke English and said he was an Englishman, but I 
think he was probably a discharged American soldier who 
had remained with the command. He also was drunk. I 
asked him if he was a soldier and he said no, so I arrested 
the soldier he was with and ordered the citizen to move 
on and go about his business. He followed me up, abus- 



THE ** CAPTURE BY ASSAULT" 219 

ing me for arresting the soldier, and I again went back 
and drove him away, saying that I would arrest him, too, 
if I had any more trouble with him. I delivered the 
soldier to the guard and as I was turning away I en- 
countered the citizen again coming to the rescue of the 
soldier. My Irish was then up and I started for him, but 
he ran away. I soon overtook him and arrested him, but 
he resisted and I struck him over the head with my pistol, 
which cut his scalp and made the blood flow freely. He 
then accompanied me to the guard. He had told me 
that ^ no damned American officer could arrest him because 
he was an English citizen," and I concluded that it was 
best for the community that 'this erroneous impression 
should be removed. 

" Here is an incident of the entrance into Manila which 
I forgot to relate. While I was advancing down the 
streets of Malate with the California regiment some 
Mauser rifleshots were heard from a small building be- 
tween the Calle Real and the beach. About a dozen 
California men rushed into the yard in which the building 
was situated and, kneeling down, pumped a rain of bullets 
into the house. I turned away to another place where 
sharp firing was going on, and presently I saw these men 
bringing out of the yard three badly scared natives, sol- 
diers in the Spanish Army, whom they had captured in 
the house, and one of the men remarked that one man in 
the house had been killed, and that there had been four 
of them altogether. They carried their prisoners along 
with the advancing troops. 

^^ "While we were waiting on the Calle de Bagumbayan, 
Major Fitzhugh came into the street from the road lead- 
ing toward Paco and reported to me that some insurgents 
had entered Malate in that direction and were advancing 
on the city and that he and Major Jones of the Quarter- 
master's department had taken the flag of the California 
regiment and going down the street in front of them had 
planted the flag and ordered them to halt, at the same 
time pulling their pistols and threatening to shoot the 
first man who dared to advance. Major Jones afterward 
remarked that it was simply a bluff on his part, as he 
didn't have a single cartridge in his pistol at the time. 
They halted, however, and Major Fitzhugh had returned 
to report that they were threatening to come in anyhow 



220 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

and kill anybody — Americans or anybody else — who tried 
to prevent them. He thought some troops should be sent 
there, and I referred him to General Greene, who just 
then came out of the walled city. He reported to General 
Greene, and I understand some troops were immediately 
despatched to prevent their further advance. 

*' I have never before realised what a demoralising thing 
it is to be shot at and not know where the bullet is com- 
ing from. The Mauser rifle used by the Spanish has a 
very small calibre and as the Spanish used smokeless powder 
the noise was very slight. There was no flash or smoke 
at all. The flash could not even be seen by night. One 
could only judge of the direction from which the bullet 
came by the small popping noise of the explosion. This 
gave one a general idea, but no indication of where to 
shoot. It gave the Spanish a most decided advantage 
over all our volunteers, who were armed with Springfields, 
the fire from which made a great noise and much smoke, 
as old-fashioned powder was in the cartridges. 

^' The other day I was sent by General Greene to guide 
certain officers to the water-works, the reservoir and the 
pumping station. We found both in the hands of the in- 
surgents, and at neither place wo aid they allow us to ex- 
amine the works until I had shown them an old pass that 
I had obtained from Aguinaldo when I started to make 
my first reconnoissance around the city. This proved to 
be an open sesame, and we had no further trouble. They 
would not give up the water works, however, without an 
order, and so on the following day General Merritt directed 
me to go and see Aguinaldo concerning the matter ; but just 
as I was making preparations to start in the worst storm 
and over the worst roads I ever saw, two emissaries from 
Aguinaldo came to see General Greene about the same 
question, so I was saved a disagreeable journey. Every- 
thing is still in considerable confusion, but I believe it is 
straightening itself out as rapidly and as smoothly as could 
well be expected under the circumstances." 

On the whole the occupation of the city was quickly 
and quietly effected. After he left Jaudenes, General 
Merritt went at once to the Government building. The 
plaza in front of it was already filling up with Spanish 
soldiers coming to surrender their arms, and glad, most of 
them, that it was all over. The Second Oregon Eegiment 



THE " CAPTURE BY ASSAULT 221 

came up to the Government building and General Merritt 
ordered Colonel Summers to receive the surrender of the 
arms. The Oregon men were drawn up in line in front 
of the Spaniards, who stood at parade rest. General 
Merritt stepped out on the balcony and the Oregon men 
saluted him. Then his two-starred blue flag was broken 
out from the balcony, and Manila was under her American 
Governor. Nearly all that night Colonel Summers worked 
and kept his tired men at it also. The Spaniards kept 
coming in from the outposts and turning over their guns 
to the Americans. The pile of captured rifles grew. 
They were stacked in the little park in front of the Gov- 
ernment house. They were piled in the corridors, they 
were everywhere, and still there were more to come in. 
Three magazines full were found the first night, and there 
are still more. 'No effort has been made as yet to list the 
property captured, but it is a great lot. The guns in the 
batteries are mostly obsolete, but some of them are good. 

The morning after the surrender there was a conference 
to arrange the formal capitulation. The United States 
were represented by General Greene, Captain Lamberton of 
the Olympia, Lieutenant-Colonel Whittier, Insjjec tor-Gen- 
eral, and Lieutenant-Colonel Crowder, Judge Advocate. 
For the Spaniards there were Nicolas de la Pena, Auditor 
General ; Colonel Carlos Keyes of the Engineers and 
Colonel Jose de Olaguer Feliu. 

The city remains quiet and the only apparently possible 
source of trouble is the insurgent situation. General Mer- 
ritt has sent General Anderson back to Cavite in practical 
charge of the matter, to treat with Aguinaldo by diplo- 
macy rather than by force. In other words, there is to 
be a game of talk. But Aguinaldo is not a talker, though 
he is clever enough at it when he tries. He has been 
making things interesting for the United States author- 
ities in Manila by saying little, and that directly to the 
point from his viewpoint. After the many collisions be- 
tween his men and the Americans on Saturday he sent a 
commission to General Anderson " in order to promote 
friendship and a better understanding.^^ General Ander- 
son did some very forceful talking. The insurgents had 
thrown up trenches oppsite our outposts in some places and 
acted as if they were besieging us instead of being our 
"' ii'iends.'-' Anderson told them very plainly that that sort 



222 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

of thing must stop and that the Filipino troops must be 
withdrawn from the city. To this they finally agreed, and 
they also gave up their demands for Manila as their capital. 

But, as has been said, there is always manana in this 
country. The insurgents have not withdrawn yet, and, 
furthermore, they do not intend to get out just yet. They 
have seized the water-works out near San Juan del Monte 
and they hold on. They occupy the pumping station and 
Manila is getting into a desperate state. The rains have 
been terrific, but the builders do not properly drain the 
houses, and so the rains do very little flushing. Aguin- 
aldo has promised to take his men away, but he fails to keep 
his promise, and we may have to use force there, for water 
must be had at any cost. 

Yesterday Aguinaldo sent his commission back again 
with a long speech and ten conditions precedent to the 
withdrawal of his troops. The long speech was to the 
effect that he had permitted the Americans to land troops 
at Bakor and Paranaque, and had befriended and helped 
them in many ways ; therefore he was entitled to some of 
the spoils. The ten conditions were briefly : 

1. That his troops withdraw only to certain limits, to be fixed 
by agreement, close to the city. 

2. That he retain certain convents in the city, which were 
to be agreed upon later. 

3. That we exercise sovereignty only over the city. 

4. That General Merritt shall consult Aguinaldo about all 
civil appointments. 

5. That the Filipinos shall have the right at all times to enter 
the river and harbour. 

6. That the arms taken from the Filipinos be returned to 
them. 

7. That the Filipinos be permitted to retain control of the 
water-works. 

8. That Filipino officers be permitted to enter the city with or 
without arms. 

9. That the Filipinos be permitted to share with the Ameri- 
cans in the booty of the captured city. 

10. That all negotiations be put in writing and confirmed by 
the commander of the American forces. 

General Anderson replied that until the Filipinos had 
given up the water-works and withdrawn their men from 
in front of our outposts there would be no more talk of 
any sort with the commission. Still, neither has been 
done, and nearly all the trouble made in the city is caused 
by the insurgents. There is the bitterest hatred between 



THE '' CAPTURE BY ASSAULT " 223 

them and the Spanish. The other night a Filipino officer 
going along without his arms but in uniform was stopped 
by a surrendered Spanish officer, who tried to take otf his 
shoulder straps. The Filipino resisted, and the Spaniard 
drew a pistol — ^side arms were retained by the terms of 
capitulation — and shot him in the leg. The same night 
five Filipinos with knives, went into the house of a wealthy 
Chinaman and demanded his money. Not getting it, they 
drew bolas and stabbed the old man nine times before the 
row attracted our guard. As it was three of the men got 
away and only two were caught. 

The work of establishing the American Government 
will go forward rapidly and at once. General Merritt is- 
sued his proclamation to-day. Parts of it had been read 
to Aguinaldo's commissioners, and in response to their 
very earnest protests some changes were made. In the 
proclamation as originally drawn it was provided that the 
Spanish laws governing civil affairs, property rights and 
for the punishment of crime should remain in force and 
be administered by local Spanish officials. Aguinaldo's 
men said the laws were all right, but they could not sub- 
mit to the Spanish officials. They argued so well that 
General Merritt finally consented to the appointment of 
American officials in the more important cases. This 
is the proclamation as it was issued 

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES. 

1. War has existed between the United States and Spain 
since April 81 of this year. Since that date you have witnessed 
the destruction by an American fleet of the Spanish naval 
power in these islands, the fall of the principal city, Manila, 
and its defences, and the surrender of the Spanish army of 
occupation to the forces of the United States. 

2 . The commander of the United States forces now in pos- 
session has instructions from his Government to assure the 
people that he has not come to wage war upon them, or upon 
any party or faction among them, but to protect them in their 
homes, in their employments and in their personal and religious 
rights. All persons who, by active aid or honest submission, 
co-operate with the United States in its efforts to give effect to 
this beneficent purpose, will receive the reward of its support 
and protection. 

3. Tlie government established among you by the United 
States army is a government of military occupation ; and for 
the present it is ordered that the municipal laws such as 
affect private rights of persons and property, regulate local insti- 
tutions and provide for the punishment of crime shall be con- 



224 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

sidered as continuing in force, so far as compatible with the 
purposes of military government, and that they be administered 
through the ordinary tribunals substantially as before occupa- 
tion, but by officials appointed by the Government of occupa- 
tion. 

4. A Provost Marshal-General will be appointed for the city 
of Manila and its outlying districts. This territory will be 
divided into sub-districts and there wiU be assigned to each 
a Deputy Provost Marshal. The duties of the Provost Marshal- 
General and his deputies will be set forth in detail in future 
orders. In a general way they are charged with the duty of 
making arrests of military as well as civil offenders, sending 
such of the former class as are triable by courts-martial to their 
proper commands with statements of their offences and names of 
^vitnesses and detaining in custody all other offenders for trial 
by military commission, provost courts, or native criminal courts, 
in accordance with law and the instructions hereafter to be 
issued. 

5. The port of Manila and all other ports and places in the 
Philippines which maybe in actual possession of our land and 
naval forces will be open while our military occupation may 
continue to the commerce of all neutral nations, as well as our 
own, in articles not contraband of war and upon payment of 
the prescribed rates of duty which may be in force at the time 
of the importation. 

6. All churches and places devoted to religious worship and 
to the arts and sciences, all educational institutions, libraries, 
scientific collections, museums, are, so far as possible, to be pro- 
tected ; and all destruction or intentional defacement of such 
places or property, of historical monuments, archives or works of 
science is prohibited, save when required by urgent military ne- 
cessity. Severe punishment will be meted out for all violations 
of this regulation. 

The custodians of all properties of the character mentioned 
in this section will make prompt returns thereof to these head- 
quarters, stating character and location and embodying such rec- 
ommendations as they may think proper for the full protection 
of the properties under their care and custody, that proper orders 
may issue enjoining the co-operation of both military and civil 
authorities in securing such protection. 

7. The commanding General, in announcing the establish- 
ment of military government and in entering upon his duties as 
military Governor, in pursuance of his appointments as such 
by the Government of the United States, desires to assure the 
people that so long as they preserve the peace and perform their 
duties toward the representatives of the United States, they will 
not be distiu'bed in their persons and property, except in so far 
as may be found necessary for the good of the service of the 
United States and the benefit of the people of the Philippines. 

Wesley Merritt, 
Major-General U. S. Army, Commanding. 



AFTER MANILA SURRENI^ERED 22$ 

CHAPTER XXXIII 

AFTEK MAKILA SUEEEl^DERED 

Man'ILA, Aug. 24. — The Americans have been occupy- 
ing the capital of the Philippines ten days. They have 
been days full of work, with, at the start, considerable anx- 
iety, but the work begins to tell, system is evolved out of 
chaos ; soon everything will be as smooth as could be 
expected under the circumstances, if not as smooth as 
could be desired. It was a tremendous task, complicated 
in soul-harrowing fashion by our inability, to speak the 
language. Interpreters were few and very hard to get. 
They were occupied constantly and worked to death. 
Strangely, Manila furnished no interpreters. The Eng- 
lishmen here who speak Spanish like natives are all oc- 
cupied all the time with the work of their reviving busi- 
ness, and have small opportunity to be of such practical 
assistance to their friends, the Americans, as would be de- 
monstrated by talking Spanish for them. Fortunately for 
the army, there were several men in the Oregon and Cali- 
fornia regiments who knew Spanish, and two or three of 
the regulars who had served in Texas had picked up a 
working knowledge of it there. 

Aguinaldo began to make trouble at the start. His ten 
demands, which were sent in a previous letter, fairly 
showed the temper of the Filipinos. As a matter of fact, 
government of these islands or of anything else by the 
Filipinos is out of the question, and will be out of it for 
many years. Only a few of them have reached such a 
stage of intellectual advancement as to be able to compre- 
hend any of the problems of government or of responsibil- 
ity. The trouble is that these few leaders have the im- 
plicit faith and doglike devotion of their fellows. They 
have not the wisdom to limit their ambitions, and aspire 
beyond the wildest possibility. It is the desire of the moth 
for the star. 

The water-works are in operation. The whole city has 
not profited as yet, because, with cheerful imbecility, the 
Spaniards had broken mains and conneations and opened 
15 



226 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

cocks when the insurgents shut off the supply, doing dam- 
age which it will take several days yet to repair. I^ow, 
however, the Filipinos are actually retiring from the out- 
posts along our lines, and it begins to look as if the Amer- 
ican Army really was in occupation. The anomaly of 
two Captains-G-eneral in the Philippines, both exercising 
full power, apparently, still remains, but that will not 
last long. There was a great desire among the Americans 
to put an end to insurgent pretensions at once by force, 
but although it was annoying to see the Filipino flag flying 
in Ermita and elsewhere close to the walled city, and al- 
though it was not pleasant to contemplate the arrogance 
and '"'freshness^' of Aguinaldo's men, undoubtedly it was 
better to endure that for a little while and win out in the 
end by diplomacy than to win at once by fight. Until it 
becomes a definitely determined fact that these islands are 
to be part of Uncle Sam^s domain forever, the question of 
the native can remain in abeyance. 

One of the moving factors in Aguinaldo^s new comjolais- 
ance undoubtedly was the arrival of the two transports. 
Peru and City of Puebla, on Sunday morning, with 2,000 
more troops. It creates a healthy frame in the Fili- 
pino mind to see the way in which the great strapj)ing 
American soldiers keep coming in by the thousands or so 
from some incomprehensible place down beyond the Boca 
Grande. The men are bigger and hardier and stronger 
than any men these chaps have seen before. They come 
in bigger ships than the Filipino people know. They en- 
dure and accomplish in a way that surprises the poor 
devils, who are familiar only with Spanish incompetence 
and procrastination. And the result is salutary. The 
Peru and Puebla had a pleasant enough voyage, but they 
were a disappointed lot who came ashore from the new 
transports. Eager almost beyond the bounds of restraint 
to get here in time to take part in the capture of Manila, 
they lay twelve days in Honolulu. Honolulu is the gar- 
den of the gods. It would be impossible to choose a finer 
place in which to spend twelve days, but when you have 
not twelve hours to delay, twelve days, even in Eden, cloy. 
They did their best after leaving Honolulu. They made 
the ^^ engines stamp and ring,^' but when they came up the 
bay on Saturday evening the light at the mouth of the 
Pasig told them they were too late. 



AFTER MANILA SURRENDERED 22/ 

The story of the Avounding of Father McKinnon, chap- 
lain of the First California Eegiment, is one of the little 
narratives that have been cropping out since the surrender. 
It was the sixth time that Father McKinnon had had a 
mighty close call. Most of them he got while trying to get 
into the city to see the Archbishop. At last, when all ef- 
forts to reach the Archbishop through diplomatic means 
had failed, the chaplain struck out on his own hook. He 
walked np the beach in broad daylight, straight toward 
the Spanish lines. The Spaniards shot at him, and he 
stopped. Then he waved his hand at them and walked 
on. They did not shoot again, and he reached the lines 
in safety. They received him very cordially, apologised 
for their inability to get him a horse, because most of them 
had been eaten, and sent him with a guard to the Colonel 
in command at that point. The Colonel apologised also 
about the horse, and sent him along to General Kizo, in 
command at the front. The General made a third and 
elaborate apology, and Father McKinnon walked into the 
walled city and met the Archbishop. The old man, who 
all along has been accused of being the head devil of them 
all out here, of doing his utmost to prevent surrender, of 
urging the Spaniards to die in their ditches and of making 
a bombproof for himself in his palace, and who, without 
doubt, did issue a most scurrilous proclamation about the 
American plunderers, heretics, ingrates, barbarians, rav- 
ishers and all that, assured the California chaplain that 
for months he had been working and praying for peace, 
that he had advised and voted for it in the Council, and 
that he knew the Spaniards were overmatched and never 
could hold out. Then he sent Father McKinnon along to 
Jaudenes, the new Captain-General, who told him the 
same sort of a story as to his own actions. Some things 
are queer in this world. 

But about the wound. Father McKinnon advanced 
with his men on the day of the assault, and, on one occa- 
sion, when they were coming up the beach where there 
was absolutely no protection, the Spanish fire got warm, 
uncomfortably warm ; in fact hot. The California men 
lay down. Father McKinnon with them. The chaplain 
felt a slight stinging sensation in that part of the body 
which the surgical returns describe as the " right upper 
third," but paid no attention to it. That night, when he 



228 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

went to bed, he found two bullet holes in his trousers, and 
there was blood on them. He had also an annoying flesh 
wound which reminded him of his youthful days and the 
sensation he had when his good mother wielded her slip- 
per. For some reason Father McKinnon did not report 
the wound to the surgeons, and did not apply at the hos- 
pital for treatment. He's all right now and sits again at 
the mess table. 

On the Monday morning after the surrender the Japa- 
nese coast defence ship Matsushima, which got in just in 
time for the fun, shifted anchorage and saluted the foreign 
Admirals. She had saluted Admiral Dewey on her 
arrival. When she had finished the thirteen gun business 
all around that morning, the English flagship Immorta- 
lite broke out the Stars and Stripes and saluted with 
twenty-one guns, the first salute from a foreigner to the 
new flag in the port of Manila. The Olympia answered 
promptly, and then when the white ensign of Great Britain 
had been hauled down, it was run up again with the in- 
ternational signal, " Send boat for fresh meat."*' Captain 
Chichester responded gladly, but fong before the English 
boat had reached the Olympia the German and the French- 
man and the Jap, who had not saluted and who had not 
been included in the signal, had got their meat boats along- 
side. There are some things on which Brother Jonathan 
does not have a monopoly, and cheek is one of them. 

The opening of the cable last Sunday put new life into 
the situation here at once. The capture of the city on 
the day after the cessation of hostilities had placed Gen- 
eral Merritt in a rather peculiar position. Like Judge 
Cobb, but not for the same reason, he wanted to know 
where he was at. When the Spaniards heard that hos- 
tilities had ceased before they surrendered they were filled 
with regret that they had not held out a few days longer. 
They did not know that General Merritt had been ordered 
to suspend operations also, and that, if the order could 
have reached him in time, the Americans would still be in 
Cavite. There is no telling what they would have tried 
to do if they had known that, but, as it was, they pro- 
tested against the American occupation of the city. 
There they showed again their theatrical proclivities. 
They are mortally afraid of the '' insurrectors."" The 
frankly honest among them admit that they could not 



AFTER MANILA SURRENDERED 229 

have held out against the Filipinos mnch longer. Jan- 
denes says eight days would have done it. But neverthe- 
less they protested against American occupation. Of 
course no attention was paid to the protest. Well, when 
General Merritt got no further word from Washington he 
finally sent the China to Hong Kong with despatches. 
Negotiations with the cable company had been going on 
here all the time and the Spanish authorities had finally 
consented to release the company from its indemnity 
deposit. But the wire was sealed up in Hong Kong and 
authority to open it had to be obtained from headquarters 
in Madrid. When the cable finally began operations on 
Sunday morning there was a lot of work to do. It 
kept the men busy half the night. It was not until yester- 
day that despatches began to come in for the army. 
Then things began to buzz. 

The transports had all been held pending the return of the 
China. She got in this morning, and now they are all to be 
released and start back as soon as possible. That means, 
of course, that we shall stay here for some time, at least, 
and the officers are looking around to make themselves as 
comfortable as possible. Some of them are renting houses 
and setting up their own establishments. The wives of 
some of them will come out at once. The fine time of the 
year is coming on, and the climate is not at all bad — no, 
that is not quite it. The climate is bad from our point 
of view, but not nearly what everybody had been led to 
believe. Xo earthquakes have shown up yet, and the 
big stone buildings about do not look particularly 
trembly. 

The work of the government is fast getting into running- 
order. The provost courts opened this morning for the 
first time, with Lieutenant-Colonel Charles L. Jewett, 
Judge Advocate of the Eighth Corps, as chief Judge. 
Minor courts will be established at once. The city is 
remarkably quiet. There has been very little disorder, 
less, in fact, than in an American city of similar size in a 
similar condition. Arrests are very few, and most of 
them for trivial olfences. There has been one murder, a 
Spaniard's throat was cut by Filipinos, and there is con- 
siderable horse stealing, but on the whole it is remarkably 
quiet. The customs and internal revenue collectors are 
full of business, and they have some difficulty in adminis- 



230 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

tering the Spanish laws because they do not yet understand 
them thoroughly. 

In accordance with the President's order organizing the 
Eighth Army Corps, General Merritt has relinquished 
its command to Major-General Otis, who is now in com- 
mand of the army of occupation. General Merritt taking 
over the broader duties of Military Governor. Here is 
General Merritt's congratulation to the troops on the 
capture of the city : 

general orders no. 6. 

Headquarters Department of the Pacific ) 

AND Eighth Army Corps, [ 

Manila, P. I., Aug. 17, 1898. ) 

The Major-General commanding desires to congratulate the 
troops of this command upon their brilliant success in the cap- 
ture, by assault, of the defences of Manila on Saturday, Aug. 13, 
a date hereafter to be memorable in the history of American 
victories. 

After a journey of 7,000 miles by sea, the soldiers of the 
Philippine expedition encountered most serious difficulties in 
landing, due to protracted storms raising high surf, through 
which it was necessary to pass the small boats which afforded 
the only means of disembarking the army and its supplies. This 
great task, and the privations and hardships of a campaign dur- 
ing the rainy season in tropical lowlands, were accomplished 
and endured by all of the troops in a spirit of soldierly fortitude 
which has, at all times during these days of trial, given the 
commanding General the most heartfelt pride and confidence 
in his men. Nothing could be finer than the patient, uncom- 
plaining devotion to duty which all have shown. 

Now it is his pleasure to announce that, within three weeks 
after the arrival in the Philippines of the greater portion of the 
forces, the capital city of the Spanish possessions in the East, 
held by Spanish veterans, has fallen into our hands and he feels 
assured that all officers and men of this command have reason 
to be proud of the success of the expedition. 

The commanding General will hereafter take occasion to men- 
tion to the home Government the names of officers, men and 
organizations to whom special credit is due. 

By command of Major-General Merritt. 

J. B. Babcock, Adjutant-General. 



ABOUT A CIVILIAN PERSON 23 1 

CHAPTEE XXXIV 

ABOUT A CIVILIAN" PERSON 

Manila, Aug. 25. — He was the only man on the npper 
deck who did not have a commission. He was just a plain 
private, and really had no right to be in the place where, 
the officers go. The attendants from the hospital had pot 
him aboard just as the tender was about to start on her 
morning trip from Cavite to Manila. When Tiie was with 
his mates at Palo Alto and represented Stanford in athletics 
he weighed almost 160, but seven weeks in the hospital 
had changed all that. His eyes were deep black pockets 
in the tightly drawn faded parchment skin that held to- 
gether his brain rack. His legs and arms were like the 
slender bamboo stems among which his comrades had 
been fighting south of Manila. He lay flat on his back, 
wrapped up in the folds of the brown canvas uniform that 
fitted him once. His ridiculous shoes stuck straight up, 
except that now and then they wabbled a bit on the feet 
that no longer fitted them. Under his head was a pair of 
mouldy boots wrapped in his extra shirt. He wasn't very 
comfortable, but he was going back to his regiment, to 
the boys once more, where there would be friendly faces 
and some one to talk to him, and, if his imagination could 
force itself far enough, something like the breath of home. 
It was the '^ civilian person " who '^ rated " a place Avith 
the officers that broke the ice with the cheerfully feeble 
question : 

^^Been sick ?" 

Somewhere down in the black caverns the eyes re- 
sponded with the suggestion of a twinkle. Then the voice 
struggled into audibility : 

"No,'^ it said ; ^'been fishing." 

*' Oh," said the civilian person. '^ Thought you'd been 
in hospital." 

" Seven weeks," answered the voice ; ^' but I'm going 
back to my regiment." 

He tried to smile, but when the thin lips drew back he 
seemed to be afraid his jaws w^ould fall apart, and gave 
it up. 



232 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

" Seven weeks/^ the voice said again, ^'and I haven't 
even fired a shot. Haven^t done a bit of work since we 
got here ; haven't seen a S]3aniard, not even a Guam 
prisoner/' 

The thin lips parted again and there was the old sug- 
gestion of a twinkle in the deep eyes. The civilian person 
sat down beside him, Turk fashion, on the deck. " Pretty 
comfortable ?" he asked. Somehow he wanted to talk, 
but he didn't know just what to say. The soldier actually 
grinned. 

" Pretty fresh when I started," he said. The voice was 
almost a whisper. The tug had struck the long roll kicked 
up by the breeze. " This thing bothers a bit," he went 
on, '' but ril get along. I'm going back to the boys, you 
know." 

The Eapido got out into the bay among all the ehips. 
The sick man rolled his head and saw the new transports 
and the men-o'-war. 

" I never saw these boats before," he whispered. 

" Would you like to sit up on the bench ? " asked the 
civilian person. 

'^ Can't make it," whispered the soldier. 

The civilian person thrust one burly arm under his 
shoulders and the other under his knees, straightened up 
with him, easily as if he were a child, and sat down with 
him at the rail where he could see all the bay, and the 
shipping and the green fringe and white walls and red 
roofs of Manila and the big bright Stars and Stripes float- 
ing over the Luneta. 

'' N'ot so heavy as I was," whispered the soldier. '^ Guess 
I don't weigh more'n ninety pounds." 

He looked at all the ships, and the civilian person told 
him their names, and when they came, and what troops 
they brought ; then about the capture of the city and the 
work the soldier's comrades had done. His company was 
the first to reach the Luneta, and one of his mates was 
shot down there. 

" Say," whispered the sick man, ^^ it's great to have you 
talk to me this way. It's all right in the hospital, but the 
doctors are busy, and they get sort of used to seeing you 
'round, and they can't stop long. And the people that 
come in just look at you and go away. I used to wish 
they'd talk to me, but I guess they were busy. 



ABOUT A CIVILIAN PERSON 233 

'' Sometimes they died there in the hospital. One night 
one died right near me. He was pretty sick, yon know, 
and he didn^t get any mail. There were lots of letters, 
but he didn't get any. I don't pray much ; never prayed 
in my life till that night. I guess it was midnight, any- 
way they were all asleep. I got out of my cot and crawled 
down on my hands and knees, I couldn't walk much, to 
his cot and just prayed. And he prayed too. Then he 
died and I crawled back to my cot, and by and by they 
found him." 

The Eapido turned into the Pasig and made for her 
landing. 

^^How are you going to get out to your company ?'' 
asked the civilian person. 

" Oh, I guess I'll make it, somehow. I ain^t so fresh as 
I was, but ril make it by and by. How far is it ?" 

" Two miles." 

The sick man dropped his head on the rail. ^^ G-uess I'll 
have to go back," he said, at last. "^If you'll help me 
down FU just lie here on the deck till she goes back, and 
it'll be all right." 

The civilian person had work to do that required his at- 
tention without delay. He helped the sick man back to 
his old position, with the shoes for a pillow, and then told 
a lie. 

''^I haven't anything to do," he said: ^' if you think you 
can stand it I'll take you out there. I want to see some 
of the boys anyway." 

The pipe- stem fingers twitched and a feeble hand reached 
out to meet the grasp of the civilian person. There was 
a light in the deep eyes that was not a twinkle. The Eapido 
tied up at her landing. 

^' I never was in Manila before," said the soldier with the 
laugh in his eyes again. " It's a long way from Market 
Street." 

The soldier lay on the deck, and the civilian person went 
out to find a carriage. The stone city lay under the un- 
clouded tropic sun and sent back its heat in suffocating 
waves. No man walked who could ride, and a long string 
of negatives answered the queries of the civilian person. 
But at last, far from the landing place, he found a man 
who did not answer ''occupied " to his demand. More 
than an hour Jiad gone before he reached the Eapido 



234 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

again. The sick soldier lay on the deck in the sweltering 
heat and gasped for his feeble breath. The civilian per- 
son picked him up and carried him down to the rickety, 
jolting cart. The driver jumped down from his place and 
helped. '' Muclio malo Seftor" he said. 

They started away. '^ I got my pay yesterday." whis- 
pered the soldier. "1 wish I could get some commissary 
things." It was a long way to the soldier's company and 
the civilian person had work to do. A Filipino pony 
makes slow time at best, but this one must walk those 
long two miles. The civilian person thought of these 
things, and lied again. 

" Let's go by the Commissary's," he said, '^ I\e got lots 
of time." 

It was almost noon when they reached the " Sales from 
8 to 12 " sign, and the civilian person asked what the sol- 
dier wanted. There^'s a large list of good things in the 
Commissary's stores. Most of them are not for sick men, 
but they were what the soldier wanted. The civilian 
person bought what he dared give the sick man, and came 
back to the cart with his arms full of cans. The soldier's 
look made him think it would be all right, somehow. 

Two miles at a mile an hour takes two hours, and the 
work of the civilian person that would brook no delay was 
drifting away to another day. A boy came by the car- 
riage selling the frozen cholera that passes for water-ice 
in 5lanila. 

'^^ Wait," said the sick man, "I want some of that." 

The civilian person put his arm further around the sol- 
dier's shoulder to give him an easier rest and said : '' No, 
you can't have that. But come up to the drug store out 
here and I'll get you a bottle of soda." 

The drug store was half a mile out of the way, and the 
street was crowded with carriages and porters bearing great 
bundles on their heads or on their backs. 

'^ Ah," said the soldier, when at last he had drained the 
glass, '' that's the best drink I've had out of America." 

They made it at last, every foot at a walk and every 
stone jolting the sick man further from his grip on him- 
self. It was a man of his own company on guard at the 
regimental gate. He saw his sick comrade and violated 
the articles of war. 

'^ Hullo ! " he said, as he left his post and came forward 



MANILA OPENS HER DOORS AGAIN 235 

to greet liis friend, " have they let you off ? Fm mighty 
glad, I needed relief. Here, take my gun. Fll give you 
the orders.^^ 

The sick man dropped his head on his hands, and his 
heaving shoulders wrinkled the brown canvas coat. He 
had got back to his friends. The civilian person dropped 
out of the carriage and started away. An officer standing 
by the gate said to another : 

^^ Who is that big fellow walking so fast over there ? '' 

"That fellow,''' said the other in surprise, *^'^ don't you 

know him 2 That's Egan of the San Francisco Chronicle" 



CHAPTER XXXV 

MANILA OPENS HER DOOES AGAIN" 

Manila, Aug. 28. — In the country towns of the United 
States, where the opera-house is upstairs over the leading 
store and the stage is a lot of planks laid over up-ended 
barrels, the drop-curtain shows a wonderful city of tall 
buildings and flaring signs, with windows tight shut and 
not a soul in the streets. That was Manila the day after 
the Stars and Stripes were raised, except that in Manila 
it rained, and the day was a dismal grey that fitted the 
mood of the people, and that here and there a bedraggled 
soldier in muddy brown canvas and striped poncho tramped 
miserably up and down the streets, doing his best to keep 
the lock of his rusty rifle out of the wet. 

It was a disappointing picture to those of us who had 
been looking at it across seven miles of water for two 
months and a half. From Cavite the green fringe that 
lined the bay was broken by picturesque domes and towers, 
white walls, and red-tiled roofs. At night along the 
waterfront there twinkled a double row of electric lights, 
that winked to one another as if chuckling over the pleas- 
ant sights they saw that were hidden from the envious 
Americans over there across the bay. The sun came up 
in the morning behind the city and lighted up the red and 
yellow stripes of the Spanish flags, then hid behind the 
clouds and brought the misty mirage thvot made the city 
stand out before the watchers as if suddenly raised in air. 



236 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

We knew every indentation of the shore line, and we 
picked out the streets and the angles of the wall. At 
evening, when the sun had crossed the bay and was rolling 
down Mariveles Mountains in a ball of flaming cloud, we 
marked the last faint daylight glow among the palaces and 
cathedrals, and saw the first gleam of the Luneta lights, 
and told ourselves that by and by we should be under that 
radiance and exchange our hardships and troubles for the 
joys and comforts of the splendid city. 

We had lost sight of two material factors, the nature of 
the Spaniard and the blockade. Whatever he was once 
the Spaniard no longer cares. The name of the race is 
Ichabod — its glory has departed. He builds great palaces 
and makes fine houses, he adorns them with works of art, 
and he lets them alone. From being once beautiful they 
become picturesque, for the same reason that the moss- 
grown ruin of a stone wall is picturesque. There is much 
of that in Manila — the wall is all moss-grown, the moat is 
filled up with rubbish and weeds, through which a slimy 
stream wriggles its tortuous way, and almost every block 
shows its ruin from earthquake and fire. The blockade 
added another and perhaps natural phase to the picture. 
It spread the earthquake and fire ruin all over the city, 
through the beautiful suburbs, and along the waterfront. 
Yet most of this work simply exhibited anew the theatri- 
cal side of the Spaniard. He had no notion of making a 
serious defence, yet he wrought desolation in the city as 
if he meant to leave it only for his shallow soldier's grave. 

All along the Luneta the grand trees that furnished 
grateful shade from the blistering afternoon sun were 
despoiled of their noble branches. The beautiful botani- 
cal garden was wrecked completely, its trees hacked down 
or denuded of limbs, and sometimes even of bark, the 
shrubs and bushes pulled up by the roots or cut down 
close to the ground. The play-acting Spaniard was pro- 
viding for himself a clean sweep from the walls across 
which he had not the slightest intention of firing a bullet. 
He moved his family from his palace in the suburbs into a 
back room in the walled city and left his goods in the lower 
rooms of his palace, looking as if they had been stirred up 
like soup with a giant ladle. He shut up his shop in the 
city and put a dozen padlocks on the doors and the iron 
bars across the shuttered windows. It was a boarded- up. 



MANILA OPENS HER DOORS AGAIN 237 

tight-shut, desolate city that surrendered to the Ameri- 
cans on August 13. The Spaniard had crawled into his 
hole like a mole and filled up the entrance behind him. 

Gradually he has been coming out of his hiding. For two 
days the shutters were up on all the shops and the doors 
were fastened and barred. Only the venturesome and peace- 
ful Chinese dared to try to gather in a few stray coppers 
from the occasional American passer-by. The Tagals, 
venders of fruit and native brandy, peddled their wares 
undisturbed. The Englishmen, who had shut everything 
up and gone to Cavite for the '^bombardment," came 
back to their offices, but there was no business. The 
banks — the chartered and the Hong Kong — opened for a 
couple of hours in the morning, and carriages and carts 
that had not been seized for military use began to appear 
on the streets. 

Then G-eneral Merritt had use for the newspapers, and 
the publishers were persuaded to resume operations. They 
were vastly surprised at finding that there was to be no cen- 
sorship. General Merritt told them that as long as they 
printed the truth he had not the slightest care what they 
said, and as to their truth he would judge when they were 
issued. There came a day that was neither feast day nor 
rainy, and the city opened out like a new rose in the morn- 
ing sun. The proclamation had been issued guaranteeing 
the rights of private property. The beer gardens resumed 
business, the shutters came down all along the Escolta, the 
streets filled up with all varieties of conveyances, car- 
riages, milords, rockaways, quileses, carromatas, calasines, 
broughams, carts and traps of all kinds that English fancy 
makes ; men sauntering and hurrying, messengers, soldiers 
sightseeing in squads, officers in all stages of uniform, 
some with swords and some without ; naval officers, sailors 
of the German, French and Japanese ships ; soldiers on 
guard ; guard reliefs marching in compact bodies, belts 
full of cartridges and guns at right shoulder ; bullock 
carts loaded down with army supplies, swarms of Chinese 
porters carrying enormous loads suspended from heavy 
bars balanced across their shoulders. Filipino men lug- 
ging bundles of green grass, the only sort of hay used 
here ; men with crates of chickens on their heads, women 
with shallow baskets of fruit, bananas, green oranges, 
strange, foul-smelling fruits that look like apples and 



238 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

peaches^ and are good to eat if you have such a cold that 
you can't distinguish unpleasant odours, soldiers and offi- 
cers riding ponies, Spanish officers wearing their swords, 
men of the old civil guard in their blue and red uniforms, 
artillerymen, infantrymen, cavalr3^men, and sailors, blind 
beggars led by little boys, women with arms full of babies 
begging, all in a jumble in the narrow, rough-paved street 
between the low stone buildings and the narrow-gauge, 
one-horse street cars struggling along through the mud, 
the driver playing tunes on a whistle that sounds like the 
toy-balloon affairs they sell for a cent on Broadway. 

Guards are stationed all along the streets. In the city 
they pace up and down. In the suburbs, where their 
posts for the most part are in front of the better houses, 
they have found chairs somewhere and sit at the gates. 
All day the throng moves up and down, and the thousand 
camera fiends among our soldiers snap and snap, and 
hurry off to wear the life out of the one English-speaking 
photographer with demands for immediate development of 
their films. The Spanish gentlemen have begun now to 
reappear on the streets, and private carriages with fine 
well-fed ponies dash about. If the afternoon is fair the 
ladies come out for a drive over the pleasant suburban 
roads or about the ruined botanical garden. All through 
the suburbs you see strings of Chinese porters lugging the 
furniture that was stored so hastily inside the Avails back 
to the country homes, four men to a piano and six to a 
bed. They advance with a dogtrot step that keeps in 
rhythm with the swing of the bar over their shoulders, and 
when one shoulder is tired they turn in on themselves, 
shifting the burden and facing about, right wheel and go 
ahead. 

This afternoon was clear and fair as a late August day 
at home. There was the same fall yellow in the sunlight 
that marks the first dropping of leaves in City Hall Park. 
The air was crisp and cool and the fresh breeze that blew 
across the bay lifted the heavy perfume of the flowering 
bushes and shrubs in the gardens of the suburban palaces 
and filled the whole city with the fragrance. To-night a 
three-quarters moon floods the old city with soft light, the 
ancient wall shows black and shadowy, the red lights of 
the carriages dart about the narrow, dark streets, the big 
arc lights along the Luneta sputter and gurgle and wink 



TWO COMMANDERS 239 

to the riding lights of the ships out by the breakwater. 
To the north the dipper and to the south the cross stand 
as double guides, and in the west, scarce a pistol shot away, 
Venus vies with the moon. No sign of war in this peace- 
ful night scene. The surf beats in along the bay with 
long swing, swash and roll. It might be on the Jersey 
coast but that now and then from the narrow street in 
front of the house comes the sharp, ringing cry : '^ Halt ! 
Who^'s there?" The guards are doing their duty in the 
captured city. 



CHAPTEK XXXVI - 

TWO COMMAN^DERS 

Maitila, Aug. 30. — Uncle Sam's boys in Manila are 
mighty homesick and the going of General Merritt and 
General Greene does not help things a bit. The boys 
show a curious contradiction of feeling. They admit that 
Manila is not such a bad place to stay, very much better, 
in fact, than what they had been led to believe when they 
enlisted so eagerly to come out here. They are just as 
eager and anxious now as they were then to have Uncle 
Sam hold on to the islands ; hardly a man of them all is 
in favour of giving the islands back to Spain or letting the 
Filipinos undertake to govern them. But the war is over, 
peace is about to be determined definitely, there is nothing 
ahead but garrison duty, and let the regular army do that. 
The volunteers enlisted to fight, not to guard streets or do 
police duty. Fighting is over ; now they want to go 
home. The regulars enlist, they say, to be soldiers in 
peace as well as war times ; let them do the work here. 

Before General Merritt got the order calling him to 
Washington some of the more infiuential among the 
volunteer officers were doing their best to get recalls or 
permission to go back. One man who came out to make 
a fighting record and has made it, such as it is, finding 
that he could do nothing here although he was regarded 
very favourably by General Merritt, worked his pull in 
Washington to such efi:'ect that he is ordered to report 
there at once and leaves with General Merritt on the China 
at noon to-day. That is General Greene. 



240 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

There was a flood of applications yesterday to Greneral 
Merritt for permission or orders to return. All of them 
were denied. Many of them were from the dilettante 
soldiers of the staff, and it is hard to see why they are not 
permitted to go, for they are of no good whatever out here 
and never have been. Whatever ulterior purpose may 
have been served by their appointment, they have not been 
of the slightest use to the army. This is not meant to be 
a wholesale condemnation of such appointments, for there 
are men among the appointees from civil life who have 
been doing good work out here. A few of them have been 
conspicuously successful. But these men have all been in 
places where their civil training fitted them to do this 
work. The dilettante officers are very anxious to get 
home now. The glory and the glamour are gone and 
business interests begin to call. Business interests could 
be neglected when there was the fun and excitement of 
wearing a Major's straps and getting in sound of gun fire. 
And to some of them who have no business interests the 
joys of the fall season at home begin to appeal with great 
force, golf and shooting and cross-country riding. These 
delights are not to be had in Manila, held in truth by the 
Americans, but beleaguered on all sides by the insurgents. 

The sending of General Merritt to Paris undoubtedly 
was natural, but just as certainly it was not the wisest 
selection that could have been made, if knowledge of the 
situation here or of the complexities of interest involved 
was what was desired. The one man who, of course, is 
in the best position to give information is Admiral Dewey. 
He has made a thorough study of the whole problem from 
all sides, and has been so situated that he could ob- 
tain valuable information from all the most trustworthy 
and best equipped sources. He has a complete grasp of 
the question. But he does not want to go to Paris or 
to Washington. He told me the other day that in his 
opinion, there was much work for him to do here yet. 
He had been advised by the ISTavy Department to hold 
himself in readiness to proceed by the quickest route to 
Washington whenever the President requested him to do 
so. He had replied by cable, giving to the fullest degree 
possible the information he had gathered about the islands 
and the situation here, and also his own views as to their 
retention. Later in the interview he signified what those 



TWO COMMANDERS 24I 

views were by pointing to the big United States flag fly- 
ing over the Luneta and saying : 

*^ I hope it flies there forever, forever ! " 

General Merritt, of course, has had the advantage of 
much conversation with Admiral Dewey, who has placed 
at his disposal what information he had obtained himself. 
But the unfortunate fact is that General Merritt has not 
been in close sympathy with the Admiral. The colossal fig- 
ure of all the operations in Manila Bay is Dewey, who came 
simply as a commander of naval forces and has developed 
into a diplomat of conspicuous skill and ability. Far- 
sighted, keen, shrewd, alert, active, courageous, with a cool, 
calm nerve that is amazing, the Admiral has risen to and 
met every emergency, and not once has he made a slip. 
The administration of the army here has been far different. 
The army itself recognises this fact, and if the truth must 
be told the army is jealous of the navy. General Merritt, 
of course, could hardly be accused of such a weakness, 
but the fact is, as was said, that he has not been in close 
sympathy with Admiral Dewey, and therefore has failed 
to make the most advantageous use of his opportunities 
here for observation and for acquiring information that 
would be particularly valuable to him under existing cir- 
cumstances. He has had to rely, and is relying, largely 
on reports hastily ordered and hastily made to him by 
such subordinate officers as have improved their time here 
as best they could. He has given no general or public 
declaration of his beliefs or impressions, but he told one 
of the diplomatic representatives here, who has been very 
largely concerned in the negotiations so far, that while he 
lived the Philippine Islands should never be ruled again by 
Spain, nor should the Filipinos govern them if he could 
prevent it. 

General Merritt has been about his province very little. 
Before the fall of the city he maintained his headquarters 
on the transport Newport and visited Camp Dewey very 
few times, and Cavite only once or twice. The American 
soldiers were being worked in the trenches opposite the 
Spanish lines, with not a solitary advantage of any kind 
to be gained by the loss of their lives, and the American 
commanding General was playing whist on a ship in the 
bay. 

Tliis is an unpleasant statement, but it is the plain. 
16 



242 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

indisputable fact. General Merritt is no longer the bold, 
dashing cavalry commander whom many of the army offi- 
cers here knew a few years ago. He has been bored by 
the whole performance down here. It has had very little 
interest for him. The day after he took up his quarters 
in the Oaptain-GeneraFs palace in Malacanan he told me 
that he was tired of it all, and wanted to go home. He 
said he would rather be in his old quarters on Governor's 
Island by far than in this palace. The work to do here, 
the possibilities before him, the opportunity for himself, 
failed to appeal to him. He had no interest here. He 
said in San Francisco that he was no glutton for military 
glory, and he told the truth. It is no less true that the 
beginning of an undertaking of such magnitude as this 
should be in stronger hands. The man who undertakes 
to manage the starting of the first colonial enterprise of 
the United States must have his heart in his work, and 
energy tremendous to accompany his interest. 

When it became known that General Merritt had been 
ordered to Paris, the business men and merchants of 
Manila went to him at once to interest him in and inform 
him about the situation here. They pointed out the fact 
that as things now are business is practically at a stand- 
still. The great commerce of Manila is with the provinces. 
But the provinces are under control of the rebels. There 
are two Governors-General in the Philippines. The Amer- 
icans nominally hold the power, but Aguinaldo blocks 
every road. What shall be done ? 



CHAPTEE XXXVII 

OPITNII^G PRISOi^ DOORS 

Manila, Sept. 2. — In the ordinary course of the occu- 
pation of the city by our forces an investigation of the 
character and the inmates of the Spanish prisons began. 
So much had been known before of the way in which 
Spaniards treat their prisoners that there naturally was 
little delay, and as soon as Colonel Reeve was fairly settled 
in his office of Chief of Police he recommended to General 
MacArthur the appointment of Captain W. P. Moffett, A 



OPENING PRISON DOORS 243 

Company, First North Dakota Volunteers, as General 
Superintendent of Prisons. The appointment was made, 
and Captain Moffett at once began his work. It took a very 
short time to develop a state of affairs which it will be dif- 
ficult for Americans in their quiet homes under a free flag 
to comprehend. 

There are two principal prisons in Manila used by the 
Spaniards for the incarceration of persons accused in the 
ordinary way or of persons of small importance. For 
those accused of graver offences, or those who had great 
wealth or political importance or possibilities, the military 
prison of Santiago was reserved with its horrors, which 
rival the dreadful black hole of Calcutta. The two main 
civil prisons as they were called, although military and 
political prisoners were incarcerated there, are the Pre- 
sidio and the Bilibid, or Car eel Pudlica de Manila. These 
are supplemented by the various smaller prisons in the po- 
lice stations and the different Government baildings, each 
with its barred-windowed room where victims of official 
disfavour might be deprived of light and air. 

The Spanish officials were still in charge of the Presidio 
and Bilibid prisons — as, in fact, they are yet, nominally — 
when Captain Moffett took charge. The first work of the 
new Superintendent, or Governor, was to call on the 
Spanish officials and inform them very definitely that he 
was the ruler of the prisons from that time forth, and that 
they must do nothing without his knowledge and consent. 
It took some little time for that idea to get clear through 
Spanish intelligence, but it did at last. Captain Moffett 
is a young man and not of heroic stature. He was 
dressed in a well-worn, blue-trimmed linen uniform that 
most of our officers wear here. He had too much work to 
do and too few uniforms to keep them always in the spotless, 
faultless condition of the average indolent Spaniard. Be- 
sides, he was only a Captain, whereas the Governor of the 
prison under the beneficent and well-bribed rule of Augus- 
tin and Jaudenes was a Commandante, who had on his 
staff a Captain and a Teniente. The Commandante, with 
his gold braid and fine cap decorated with glittering braid 
and brass, ranked the plain little American Captain by 
several grades and numbers, in his own estimation, at least, 
and he was displeased at being required thus to submit to 
the authority of a subordinate. 



244 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

But the yonng man from North Dakota soon convinced 
his Excellency Don Commandante that although he wore 
only a Captain^s shoulder-straps he represented in his offi- 
cial capacity and person the sovereignty of 75,000,000 
American freemen, and in his own hand he carried, if need 
be, the powers of that great nation, demonstrated for 
the Spaniard's unbelief by the presence of 14,000 or 15,000 
great husky, hardy, rough-hewn fellows in brown canvas, 
white canvas, yellow khaki and blue flannel, parading, 
loafing, slouching, marching about the streets of the con- 
quered city. So the Don Commandante came down. 

The first job Captain Moif ett gave the Spaniards was the 
compilation of a muster roll of his prisoners. In the Pre- 
sidio and Bilibid prisons alone 2,900 persons were confined, 
men, women, children and babies. Captain Moffett re- 
quired the roll to show the name of each prisoner, the date 
of incarceration, the charge, and the court which disposed 
of the case. Also he required the original commitment 
papers in each case. The Spaniards are very handy about 
keeping records. They write volumes about the most 
trivial matters and file everything away in their archives. 
Tons and tons of the stuff have been thrown away by the 
Americans to make room for storehouses for the Commis- 
saries and Quartermasters. The records were so complete 
that the compilation or the roll desired by Captain Moffett 
was simply a question of time. That is a great factor in 
any Spanish transaction. It took the G-overnor four days 
to meet the requirements of the young man from North 
Dakota, but when the roll was finished it was complete, 
and the action of the American Captain was so swift that 
it astonished the Spaniard. 

The first roll rendered was of the persons confined in 
the Bilibid prison, and it is with them that this stor}^ 
deals. There were 28 women and 1,300 men. Inspection 
of the Bilibid rather pleasantly surprised Captain Moffett. 
"We have all heard so much of the Spanish cruelty that he 
expected to find a horde of half-starved-filthy, abject 
wretches, crowded into dark damp, foul, ill-smelling holes 
and subjected to all manner of desperate treatment and 
torture, surrounded by armed assassins called guards, eager 
to shoot them down for the first suspicion of an infrac- 
tion of the rules. Well, to the credit of the Spaniards, it 
was not so. 



OPENING PRISON DOORS 245 

The Bilibid prison is a large, fairly comfortable place. 
The bnildings are something like the military barracks, 
and there is ample ground around them to give the pris- 
oners exercise. A high, solid stone wall, moss-covered 
and dingy with age and damp, surrounds a plot of per- 
haps twelve acres. There is a big iron double gate with 
guard posts, but there are no other sentry boxes outside 
the wall. Kanged along the inside of the wall, near its 
top, at wide intervals, are a few bamboo scaffolds where 
the occasional sentinels used to walk back and forth. 

There were two astonishing things about the Bilibid 
prison — it was clean and there was very little cruelty in 
the form of personal bodily violence, prisoners were not 
beaten or shot. There were few guards and they were not 
armed with rifles. There was plenty of water and the 
prisoners could bathe frequently and keep their clothing 
in good condition. They were well fed, also, that is they 
got plenty of food, such as it was. It was of about the 
same character that natives have in their own homes, and 
as most of the prisoners were natives they suffered no par- 
ticular hardship from change of diet or scant food. They 
were fed by a Chinese contractor, who got twelve and one- 
half-cents a day, silver, for each prisoner. The average 
native will get along on half that if he can spend it himself. 

The buildings of the prison are long, narrow structures 
of brick with tile roofs. There are eight or nine all told 
inside the wall, most of them radiating from tlie main gate 
something like the sticks of an open fan. Across the ends 
of these fan-stick buildings run two others, and in a cor- 
ner of the wall there are two smaller ones, one in which 
what are called the cells are, and the other divided into 
small rooms for prisoners who can afford to pay for them. 
This building was maintained for the benefit of the Gov- 
ernor, who ran a private boarding-house of his own there, 
much as the warden of Ludlow Street jail does, except 
that the Spaniard got much less than fifteen dollars a week 
from his boarders. The floor of this building is raised 
well off the ground so that it is a fairly healthy place. 
The rooms are not large, but they are comfortable and 
dry. The floors are of the universal teak. The prisoners 
must furnish their quarters for themselves, the G-overnor 
apparently not having any spare beds, chairs or tables. 

The building in which the cells are situated is the 



246 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

toughest place in the prison. The cells are small rooms 
and there are no floors. The walls are massive and of 
stone, damp, foul and noisome. Prisoners were huddled 
together there and compelled to sleep on the reeking 
ground. There were no sanitary arrangements whatever, 
and the poor devils were a filthy lot. They tried all sorts 
of contrivances to get oS the ground, but were not per- 
mitted to buy bamboo beds for themselves. There was 
not room for such luxuries . I saw one poor fellow who had 
collected a hundred or more sardine cans and had paved 
a little patch of the ground in one of the cells with them. 
On these cans he had spread a ragged sleeping mat and 
there he camped. 

A dreadful disease almost invariably attacks the in- 
mates of this prison in a comparatively short time. It 
affects their eyes, and if they are not removed as soon as 
it manifests itself they go blind. Of the fifty or more 
men I saw huddled into two small rooms more than half 
were affected. The day I visited the Bilibid Captain 
Moffet had begun arrangements for getting the sick isolated, 
the prisoners thinned out and the condition of the prison 
improved generally. The records showed that all of those 
confined there were imprisoned for crimes, and it was not 
his purpose to investigate the incarceration of such pris- 
oners until he had finished with those who were accused 
of political offences. 

The main buildings of the prison are about a hundred 
feet long by twenty wide, one-story affairs, with rough 
cement floors. Down the centre of each stretches a long 
narra wood table which nearly fills the single room. 
There is only a narrow passageway around the room near 
the walls, not wide enough for two men to walk abreast. 
On the table the men eat their meals and there they sleep. 
The table is built of broad boards highly polished by the 
thousands of bare feet that have walked over them. In 
one end of each building a little altar has been erected. 
Around the walls are scores of nails where the prisoners 
who are lucky enough to have it hang their extra cloth- 
ing. The grounds around the building are kept clean and 
well swept. There is a big bathhouse near the wall with 
plenty of water. In the time when the insurgents had 
the water shut off, and the prisons depended on the rains 
as did all Manila, there were pretty hard times for the 



OPENING PRISON DOORS 247 

prisoners^ but now they are all right. The last Governor 
was a man of some love of the beautiful and he had some 
very good flower gardens between the buildings. 

It was when Captain Moflett began to investigate the 
roll of prisoners that he came across the iniquity of Span- 
ish institutions. It stirs an angry feeling in the blood of 
an American and provokes a wish that after all Dewey's 
guns had been turned loose on the cruel Spaniards to know 
such things as went on in the make-believe courts of 
Manila. It almost justifies the hotly expressed desire of a 
fervently patriotic Brooklyn woman that every Spaniard 
on the face of the earth should be exterminated before the 
war should end. The Spaniards talk and boast of a proud 
old civilisation. But a civilisation which makes war on 
women and which sentences men to jail for life on mere 
suspicion is no civilisation, and the men who possess no 
better claim to life than that deserve nothing from the 
world. 

Pirst on the roll were the women, twenty-eight of them. 
Engracia Tanoy led the list, and bracketted with her were 
Maximiana Duran, Tomasa Palupo, Felipa Quique and 
Gregoria Tio. They are all from the island of Negros, 
south of Luzon. The record showed, and the commit- 
ments agreed with it, that they had been in the Bilibid 
prison since July 11, 1889, on the order of the Captain- 
General, without trial, for the offence of resisting the 
armed forces of Spain. Five little native women, about 
as big as good, healthy 12-year-old American girls, kept in 
prison for more than nine years for resisting the army of 
Spain. They are brave men, these Spanish soldiers. 
Strong, sturdy, chivalrous souls. They go out by hundreds 
to suppress a rebellion of half a village of rack-ridden 
natives armed with bolas and a good cause. But these 
little devils with their sharp knives fight and they have a 
nasty way of hacking off the heads of Spanish soldiers, 
armed with Mauser rifles that kill at 2,500 yards. The 
brave Spaniards do not suppress the riot, but they return 
with prisoners to demonstrate their value. Five little 
women they bring back in chains and the giant great 
heart in the Governor's palace sends them to prison for 
life without trial. 

With these five was Eusebia Baculbacul, taken on Christ- 
mas day, 1889. Eusebia arose single handed on that 



248 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

blessed day and defied the armed forces of Spain, if their 
lying records for once are true. For this the valiant army, 
proper reinforcements having hurried out, arrested Euse- 
t3ia and the noble Governor-General commended their 
valour and defended their honour by committing the infa- 
mous traitoress to prison for the rest of her life. They were 
a worthy set of scoundrels who have ruled the Philippines. 

Then there was Dorotea xlrceaga, committed on August 
8, 1895, for ^^ sacrilege" after a trial by court-martial. 
She was the teacher of a little school for native chidren. 
Somewhere she had gained the beginnings of an education 
and to this awful crime she added that of doing her best 
to impart something of what she knew to some of her 
people. Her little school was in Malate, not very far from 
where this is written. Dorotea was a devout Catholic and 
went to mass in the old red brick church in Malate where 
now Aguinaldo's men house themselves. 

Dorotea was comely, and the priest to whom she con- 
fessed was a devil in a black robe. Dorotea had that in- 
stinctive regard for her own honour which not even the 
training she had had could remove, and her father con- 
fessor found a spirit he could not defile, a will he could 
not break. He went to the Captain-General and said 
Dorotea had stolen a chalice from his church. Thereupon 
the good-looking little school-teacher was charged with 
^' insurrection''^ and ^' sacrilege," and a court-martial sent 
her to Bilibid to end her days. She told the story very 
simply to Captain Moffett. The American had made no 
explanation of what he intended to do with the Bilibid 
prisoners. She had no more thought of liberty, and the 
recital was matter of fact and devoid even of passion. 
Hope had given place to despair. The blue eyes of the 
young Captain flashed and his firm jaws clenched. He 
thought of the young wife and the babies in the far-away 
North Dakota home, and he wished he had that infamous 
priest in his care to spend a few months in the '' cells." 

The story is all much the same, but two cases showed 
where the despicable Spaniard had tried to cover his tracks. 
The record gave the date of commitment of Dofia Maxima 
Guerrera as July 11, 1890, but it specified no crime. The 
Captain-General was named as the committing magistrate, 
and there was no record of trial. Captain Moffett called 
for the original commitment papers^ an(i there the story 



OPENING PRISON DOORS 249 

was revealed. She had been in Bilibid since 1890. In 
the summer of that year, when she was fifty-one years old, 
she had resisted the armed forces of Spain. She was a 
widow. Her husband had accumulated some property, 
and she was worth about $40,000. Most of it was in land, 
which by some means they had managed to keep from the 
insatiate grasp of the church. There was valuable timber 
on the land, and one day when the Captain-General needed 
some money he sold the wood to a contractor of Manila. 
He didn't mention the transaction to Dona Maxima, and 
the first she knew of it was when the contractor's men ap- 
peared and began to cut down her trees. Then she fought. 
The soldiers came to enforce the Captain-General's order 
and see that the wood was cut, and Dofia Maxima resisted 
them. She made no denial of that fact. She had been 
in prison eight years for it, but she would do it again. 
The soldiers brought her to Manila, and the Captain-Gen- 
eral sent her to Bilibid. Then he sold land as well as 
wood, and was $40,000 richer, with no one but Dona Max- 
ima to make complaint — no one but a few natives, who did 
not count with the Captain-General. 

Fulgencia Mason was sent to Bilibid on July 11 of 
that year also, for no recorded offence. The original com- 
mitment papers in her case showed that she, too, had been 
imprisoned in 1890, when she was accused of uttering 
forged telegraph stamps. There was no record of any trial, 
but the papers did show that she had been released in 1891 
and had been at liberty for nearly a year, when she was re-ar- 
rested on the old charge. She had been in the prison ever 
since without trial. She could not bring the testimony of 
corroborating witnesses, as Dorotea, the school-teacher, 
did for some of her story, but the account she gave the 
American Governor of the prison had the ground for be- 
lief that it fitted the substantiated stories of the Spanish 
regime. She said the Spaniards had been utterly unable 
to procure any evidence against her and so she had never 
been brought to trial. When she had been in prison a 
year she found out that for $900 the Judge would liberate 
her. Her friends helped and with what she had she got 
together the $900, bribed the Judge and was let out of 
the prison. She had her freedom for nearly a year ; then 
the Judge went home to Spain, and a new scoundrel took 
his place. The outgoing Judge had been in office some 



250 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

time and had robbed himself rich. He was satisfied with 
a comparatively small bribe, but the incoming thief was 
poor. It was a case of a bran-new Captain in a fat pre- 
cinct. He wanted everything in sight. He heard of Eul- 
gencia and demanded $3,000 as the price of her continued 
liberty. He might as well have demanded $3,000,000, it 
was as much within her reach. She couldn^'t pay and had 
been in Bilibid ever since. 

So it went on as the Captain's investigation proceeded. 
Fausta Jose was committed on June 25, 1896, by a court- 
martial for ''insurrection.'' Clara Ferrer went to Bilibid 
on September 12, 1897, to await trial for something or 
other, and the record showed that her case was ^' procesada " 
before a court-martial. So with Teresa Leonion, who 
was imprisoned on March 11 of this year. Pascuela 
Petana was imprisoned three days after Dewey whaled 
Montojo out of his boots, and the Spaniards were still so 
rattled that they forgot to record the charge or the court, 
and the commitment papers had been lost. They evidently 
had not recovered by June 14, for on that day they impris- 
oned Maria Clemente and Barbara David without record- 
ing why. The Civil G-overnor did that. About 500 native 
soldiers were imprisoned that day on the suspicion that 
they might have intended to desert, and these women may 
have been suspected of sympathising with the suspected 
men. 

On July 30 of this year the Civil Governor of Manila 
sent Maria Cabiquin to Bilibid for ^' scandal." It would 
be interesting, perhaps, to know what the scandal was, 
but the Spaniards made no record, and Maria says she 
never was told. So there isn't much chance of finding out. 
Two days before we took the city, on August 11, they 
caught Oristina Cabalquet carrying thirty rifle cartridges 
through the street. They knew their shrift was short, so 
they hurried up and court-martialled Cristina quicker 
than a Spaniard ever did anything else in his life, barring 
some of those who ran away from Fort San Antonio when 
the warships began to shell Malate. They tried her the 
same day and sent her to Bilibid for life. 

It took Captain Moffett some time to get through the 
cases of these seventeen women. The other eleven were 
all accused of some' sort of crime, robbery being most com- 
mon, with one case of infanticide, so he decided to let 



OPENING PRISON DOORS 2$ I 

them stand over for a time and began on the men. The 
first thing he struck was '"^ Catapunan." If yon want to 
go straight to Spanish hell, yon join the Catapunan. It 
is a society of natives, as secret as these tailless bandarlogs 
can keep anything, oath bound and altogether terrible 
from the Castilian point of view. The Spaniards probably 
are right in being afraid of it, for as nearly as can be 
found out its main object is the eradication of Spaniards 
from the Philippines. That is an altogether praiseworthy 
object from any point of view, otlier than Castilian, for 
they cumber the ground and rob it of its fertility. It is 
said that the Catapunan is a sort of Freemasonry, but it 
is not such Freemasonry as the rest of the world knows, 
for it knows no ancient landmarks and recognises no signs 
or tokens. To be suspected of being *^ Catapunan'"' is 
sufficient ground for life imprisonment in the Philippines, 
as Captain Moifett very quickly found out. 

The political suspects were taken in batches of twenty- 
five in the order in which their names appeared on the 
roll, and taken before the new American G-overnor of the 
prison for cross-examination. One of the smaller buildings 
of the prison had been cleared out and was used for an 
examination room. Across one end of the room a long 
table was placed, behind which sat Captain Moffett with 
his clerk, a soldier detailed as an interpreter, and Sandico, 
Aguinaldo's aide. Sandico had been very much interested 
in Captain Moffett's work, particularly because the politi- 
cal prisoners were all of his own people. He proved a 
most valuable assistant, both because of his ability to talk 
with the prisoners in their own tongue, whatever dialect 
they spoke, and of his knowledge of Spanish customs. 

The Spanish officials of the prison were also present and 
frequently Captain Moffett asked them if they thought 
the prisoners under examination were telling the truth. 
To his astonishment they replied that they did. After- 
ward they pointed out cases of particular injustice and 
have been of material assistance to Captain Moffett in his 
work. He can account for it only on the theory that they 
believe the game is over so far as they are concerned and 
as they have nothing more to gain they may as well tell 
the truth for once and so get what credit they can with 
the Americans. Perhaps, however, they look forward to 
the time when Spain shall control again in Manila and 



252 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

contemplate with satisfaction the bribes they may be en- 
abled to wolf out of the poor devils now set free for not 
denouncing them again. 

With the roll before him Captain Moffett began, through 
Sandico, the examination of the first man of the first batch 
of twenty-five. The prisoner stepped forward from the 
double line which extended across the room, and in re- 
sponse to Sandico's rapid questions told his name, the 
date of his incarceration, the accusation, whether he had 
been tried or not and if so the sentence. Some of them 
had been in for years, some for only a few months. Many 
had been arrested on June 14 of this year. All these had 
been voluntarios. Some of the men of their regiment had 
deserted to the insurgents. The rest had been imprisoned 
in a body because the Captain-General suspected that they 
would follow their comrades. No doubt he was right. 
Thousands of others had deserted and Spain had lost much 
more ground from that cause than she had from defeat in 
battle. Catapunan came to the front very promptly. 
Many men had been sentenced to imprisonment for life 
for belonging to the society, some of them for being sus- 
pected of belonging. Several of them frankly admitted 
to Captain Moffett that they were members. They even 
showed him the marks which proved their initiation. All 
who join Catapunan sign the roll in their own blood. The 
third finger of the left hand is pricked at the tip until the 
blood runs, and with that blood they sign. Then as a sure 
sign of membership a vein is opened in the left forearm 
in such fashion that the wound will certainly leave a scar, 
or a wound is made in the left breast that will leave a 
round scar like a vaccination mark. 

As the result of his first day's work in examining pris- 
oners. Captain Moffett recommended to General Mac- 
Arthur that the seventeen women named in this story and 
fifty-one men be discharged, and it was so ordered by the 
Provost Marshal-General. The next morning the sixty- 
eight prisoners were drawn up at the main gate and Cap- 
tain Moffett made them a little speech. He told them 
that American soldiers did not make war upon women ; 
that in America no person was imprisoned for political 
reasons or for being merely suspected. Every person ac- 
cused had a fair trial, and all persons were equal before the 
law. The Americans had come here, he said, to put an end 



OPENING PRISON DOORS 253 

to wicked oppression and misrule. One of their first 
acts was to liberate these unjustly imprisoned Filipinos, 
and now the Americans had a right to expect from the 
Filipinos loyal and faithful friendship. 

The Filipinos were dazed by their unexpected good for- 
tune, but when Sandico had finished interpreting Captain 
Moffetfs speech, they shouted, ^^ Vi van los Americanos !" 
in a way that drew crowds about the gate. Every day since 
then the scene at the gate has been repeated, except that 
each day the number released has grown larger. The 
second day it was 101, yesterday it was 118, and to-day 150. 
It will take a week yet to get through with the Bilibid 
prison, and then will come the Presidio. Now, the Filipinos 
begin to gather about the gate of the Bilibid prison early 
in the morning, and when liberty hour comes, between 
ten and eleven, a great throng of them stand about and 
listen to the Captain^s speech and cheer him when the big 
gate swings open and their free friends walk out. Many 
of those still confined have packed all their belongings 
into little bandies, ready for freedom's call at any instant. 
They watch Captain MofEett with eyes that miss no motion, 
and during the sessions in the examination room they 
crowd about the open barred windows and listen with 
breathless, motionless interest to the proceedings inside. 
Captain Moifett is working eighteen hours a day all day at 
the prison and half the night over his records in his office, 
but he says he cannot slack up while these poor devils 
remain m unjust confinements 

Two days after she was released Dona Maxima Guerrera 
came back to Captain Moffett with a new complaint. 
She said that when she was imprisoned she had a lot of 
money and some jewelry. She pawned the jewelry and 
gave the tickets and the money to a Chinaman for safe- 
keeping, the Chinaman to look out that her pawned jewehy 
was not forfeited and to have a reasonable amount for his 
trouble if she ever got out, all if she died in prison. Now 
the Chinaman refuses to give up money or pawntickets. 
The case probably will be settled iru the Provost Court. 

This afternoon a typically Spanish performance was 
brought to light in the examination of prisoners. Pedro 
Aragon Poblate, a white-haired, fine-looking old Filipino, 
was called on for his story. He said he had been arrested 
on October 26, 1897, on suspicion of being a rebel. He lived 



254 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

in the province of Bulacan. He had been tried and sen- 
tenced to imprisonment for six months. The sentence 
expired long ago, but when he asked to be released the 
officials replied that they could not return him to his home 
in safety because the rebels held the province. He offered 
to go home alone, but the Spaniards wouldn't have it. 
The real reason for their keeping him in prison, he thinks, 
is that they have confiscated his property. The secretary 
of Ingenio Eosaro, the judge who sentenced him, he says, 
has his money and clothes. 

This is one phase of Spanish rule partly exhibited by 
our occupation. 'No one can tell what Captain Moffett's 
work may yet reveal. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 

Manila, Sept. 10. — From the point of view here, it 
seems as if the decision as to the future of the Philippines 
has been made already, so far as the Americans are con- 
cerned, and what may be said by those who have had the 
small opportunity of observation afforded by our operations 
here can have little weight. 

An immense amount of misinformation has been spread 
through the United States by inaccurate writers who have 
made the briefest possible visits here and have had the 
smallest possible facilities for gathering trustworthy in- 
ormation. This misinformation is probably most wide 
spread concerning the climate. So far as Manila and the 
country in its immediate vicinity are concerned, the climate 
bears small resemblance to the dreadful pictures drawn 
for the soldiers of the expeditionary forces. We jour- 
neyed hither with the notion that we were coming into a 
hell pit where heat and rain alternated in making men 
miserable and ill. Now, the fact is that it is not so bad 
after all. It is hot, but very frequently it is much hotter 
in New York. It rains, and it rains hard. No United 
States rain can compare with a good, able-bodied Philippine 
downpour. But you go prepared for rain in the rainy 
season, and you do not mind it much. And you dress for 



"TAKEN AN EMPIRE" 255 

the heat and do not mind that much. If one observes 
reasonable precautions and takes fairly good care of him- 
self, the climate need have no terror, and in the fall sea- 
son, which is now coming on, it is delightful. We have 
had the first week or ten days of fine, clear days, hot, no 
doubt, at noonday, but cool and delightful at night, with 
fresh, pleasant breezes and clear air. 

With Cuba, Porto Rico, the Hawaiian Islands and Guam 
ours, it seems as if the question of Imperialism, if it be so 
called, is already decided. Then the question of the re- 
tention of the Philippines by the United States becomes 
simply one of specific advantage or disadvantage. There 
are arguments on both sides ; which side has the pre- 
ponderance ? Admiral Dewey sat on the quarter-deck of 
his flagship the other day and exclaimed : 

^^ We have taken an empire here — an empire ! '^ 

It is absolutely true. The Philippine Islands form an 
empire whose possibilities seem almost beyond the bounds 
of computation. The surface has not even been scratched 
and already their commerce amounts to many millions. 
The soil is fertile beyond anything America knows, and it 
is suited to almost every crop. The manager of the Ma- 
nila branch of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and 
China said to me the other day that in all his experience 
in these islands he had never seen a failure of any crop. 
Whatever was sown, that was reaped. 

Only the faintest suggestion of development of the 
islands^ resources has been made. It has been the policy 
of the Spanish to prevent development. Robbery and 
personal gain were the only objects of the Spanish officials. 
Take the single instance of the building of the breakwater 
and pier off the mouth of the Pasig River. Work has been 
going on at it for two-score years or more. There were 
several special taxes devoted ostensibly to the construction 
of the pier, and the fund was increased by a percentage of 
the import duties, wharf ao;e dues in the river, lighthouse 
tax, and other imposts. Yet the pier is hardly begun. 

When Major Whipple took over the public treasury 
and examined the books, the first thing he found was 
proof that Weyler lined his pockets well when he was 
Captain-General of the Philippines. When he left the is- 
lands he stole 2,500,000 pesos from the treasury. He gave 
100,000 pesos to the Judge who had jurisdiction of such 



256 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

cases, and 400,000 to the Treasurer and other officials who 
were in a position to make trouble for him. That shows 
one limit of Spanish theft. Here is another. The mana- 
ger of one of the largest English business houses in Manila 
desired to build an outhouse in his yard. It Avas necessary 
to get a permit. One almost had to get a permit to 
breathe under Spanish rule here. He went to the Gov- 
ernor of the city, and had to give a bribe of 100 pesos be- 
fore the permit could be issued. That besides the fee for 
the permit. 

No wonder the resources of the islands are not fully 
known. What is known of them, however, is enough to 
amaze one. Hemp, sugar, coffee — almost nothing done 
with them now. Thousands of acres of the finest coffee 
land under the sun lying untouched. Fertile valleys, 
wooded and shaded, protected against winds, where the 
rainfall is tremendous and even, a paradise for coffee 
growers, and the opportunity for no one to say what for- 
tunes. In the islands to the south there are forests of 
teak, ebony and mahogany that have never been touched. 
In the floors of the commonest buildings in and around 
Manila one sees teak boards two feet wide and twenty-five 
feet long. Mahogany is used as we use pine. Mindoro is 
covered with such wood, and only the fringe of Mindoro 
has been touched. These things are just a suggestion of 
the possibilities. 

Labour is plentiful, sure and cheap. One hires a man 
for eight pesos a month, and fifteen pesos is a price never 
heard of until the Americans came here and began to bull 
the market. 

The other side of the question has its strong arguments, 
too. Some of the islands are inhabited by savages whom 
the Spanish never conquered. The natives we have seen 
about Manila are the best of the whole lot. They have 
had the advantage of two centuries and more of association 
with such civilisation as the Spaniards possess. They have 
had more chance of education than their fellows of the re- 
mote provinces. Yet not even the best of them are cap- 
able of self-government. Aguinaldo himself falls short of 
comprehension of the requirements, possibilities and dan- 
gers of the institutions he seeks to found. Two hundred 
years of free government by Americans, with free schools 
and all that that implies, will not fit these people for citi- 



PUZZLING THE FILIPINOS 257 

zenship as we know and understand iti A successful 
government of these islands by Americans must be by a 
modification of the English colonial system, and that in- 
volves a radical departure from all we know. The con- 
quering of the islands from the natives will be a difficult 
and arduous task in some cases, but we should have plenty 
of time to do it as we pleased, and results would amply 
compensate. 

Statistics of the business and commerce of the islands, 
and of the Custom House and internal revenue here, Avliich 
will come later, will bear out all these things. This is but 
the barest outline, a mere suggestion of what can be done 
with the Philippines. It is a knowledge of these things 
that makes Admiral Dewey hope that the islands will be 
held by us. It was a glimpse of these possibilities that 
made General Merritt say that, never while he lived, if he 
could help it, should the Spaniards or the Filipinos con- 
trol the Philippines. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 

PUZZLING THE riLIPIiq"OS 

Man"ILA, Sept. 13. — The lizard that lives in the 
hole in the ceiling where the electric light wires run 
through has just had a fight with what we call a Junebug. 
He is a little bit of a lizard with a tail nearly twice as long 
as his body, and that isn't much more than an inch. 
Rightfully, probably, he is entitled to be called chameleon, 
that is, if the essential quality of the chameleon is the 
ability to change his colour. That's what the old fourth 
reader used to say, and natural history has made few 
strides, for this writer at least, since his fourth reader 
days. Most of those few have been backward. But lizard 
or chameleon, he has had the fight, and as the main busi- 
ness of a war correspondent is to record fights, why here 
goes. As I said, he is a little lizard, but when he stands 
on the wall, head down, he has as much fun a-lashiiig of 
his tail as any tiger in his royal jungle. He waggles his 
head, also, and has other personal habits copied from wise 
men. For instance, he opens and shuts his mouth a few 
17 



258 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

times and says nothing. Just now, as he was travelling 
through the vast unexplored district of blue wall, just to the 
left of the electric light wire, a monstrous big bug came 
thundering in through the open door and did his best to 
collide with the incandescent lamp. That shows a fair 
average of Filipino intelligence. He hit the lamp and 
slid o5, gracefully, if not gently, and hammered his head 
against the wall. That made him angry, and when just 
then the lizard stumbled over the rough edge of a nail hole 
in the wall and lost his temper, too, there was the making 
of as pretty a scrap as you want to see. The lizard slipped 
an inch or two down the wall when he stumbled and the 
Junebug undeniably grinned. Moreover, he wiggled his 
long antennas most offensively, in a manner no right- 
minded lizard could endure. The Junebug is a big devil. 
He's sitting up there on the wall now, snug as a bug 
should be, with an inch and a half of heavy shell over his 
back, and waving derision with his long pothooks at a 
flock of little green gnats that are bobbing about under 
his nose. When the June bug twiddled his fingers at the 
lizard, the lizard set his teeth together and tapped the 
wall three times, decisively, with his nose. 

''Aire" said the bug, and kicked out his hind legs. 

'' Runca," exclaimed the lizard and patted the wall with 
his left forefoot. 

'' Alivante ^roa" shouted the bug, and at it they 
went. 

You won't find those words in the dictionary. Nobody 
but the bandarlog knows what they mean. They are 
used by our boatmen to express excitement and determina- 
tion at the moment when the swell is hammering the boat 
up against the companion ladder and you are wondering 
whether you are to be drowned or just merely smashed. 
Undoubtedly they express exactly what the bug and the 
lizard felt just as they started at each other. 

The ground covered by the charge was about four 
inches on each side. The lizard made it at a full run, but 
the bug loafed. He knew enough to save his wind. They 
came together on the high plateau beside the lamp bracket, 
Avhere the paper has blistered and stands a sixteenth 
of an inch or so away from the wall. They met with a 
crash that made the gnats about the lamp jump half an 
inch. Then the lizard got home the first blow. He hit 



PUZZLING THE FILIPINOS 259 

the bug fairly in the mouth with the horn-hard end of his 
nose. The bug reached over his enemy's back and 
wrapped his derrick arms around the lizard's starboard 
quarter. Consternation in the reptile camp. Instant reply 
by means of straight jabs in the eyes delivered with light- 
ning-like rapidity with the lizard's nose until the bug's 
derrick began to be effective. The lizard claimed a foul, 
but it was disallowed. For an instant there was a lively 
mix-up, all legs being employed that were not absolutely 
necessary in the retention of position on the wall. Then 
zip — they broke away. The lizard sauntered across the 
field and gobbled up two gnats and a small bug by way of 
reprisals. The bug — the big old gladiator bug — idly con- 
templated the electric light and wiggled his long antennae. 
Once in a Avhile he kicked out a leg reflectively to see if it 
was all right. It was a draw. 



These Americans are an incomprehensible people. They 
come down here, 10,000 miles from home, they bring 
men, big husky fellows, by the thousand, and a vast 
equipment to make war, and when they get here they sit 
down and wait until the enemy gets tired and surrenders 
without a fight. It's very droll. They have some queer 
notions, these Americans. What diflerence does it make 
to them if a Filipino pounds his horse with a club until 
it falls down ? The horse, perhaps, is a little balky and 
will not go. The Spanish officer in the calesin is in the 
only hurry of his life, and the pony stops. Clearly it is a 
case for a club. But just when cochero is at his merriest 
work and the club has beaten a hole in the pony's back 
from which the blood runs, along comes one of these hulk- 
ing Americans with a gun and a long bayonet, and then 
goes cochero to the Provost Judge. For what ? May a 
man not beat his own pony ? The beast would not go, and 
why should it not be beaten ? Besides, the senor must 
arrive very quickly. Yet cochero is taken to the Judge, 
and perhaps will clean streets for a pair of weeks. Some- 
times a pony has a small sore under his collar no bigger, 
maybe, than a man's hand. Such things must happen. 
The collar, perhaps, is too big, but there is no other col- 
lar and it must do. Then come these ridiculous Ameri- 
cans and tell cochero he must not use that pony. If he 



26o OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

does, they will punish him, and, worst of all, they do it. 
Surely that is beyond explanation. 

There was the boy with the bird-trap, just a little boy, 
not more than six years, and he must catch birds if he is 
to live. But these absurd Americans, see what they do. 
They take his trap. It is not much, this trap, only a bam- 
boo pole. It has a looped string at the end, and it is a 
goo-d springy pole. If the pole is bent and the trap "is set 
and the bird walks into the noose, why, you pull the lock- 
ing cord, the trap is sprung, and there dangles the bird by 
the foot. Even a little boy, not more than six years, can 
work this trap. And if he is a sharp little boy, and ties 
one live bird to the bamboo pole as a decoy, why he can 
make perhaps four or six centimes a day, and by and by 
he will become rich and have a Nipa house of his own and 
a little boy to catch other birds. 

There is a tree down there in the Calle San Luis, 
where those five Americans live, not much of a tree if one 
likes broad branches and thick shade, but big enough to 
house a small family of birds. It would be like the foolish 
Americans to feed these birds, as they are very tame. Per- 
haps by and by they will catch them and eat them. If now 
a small boy, not more than six years, should go down 
there with his bamboo trap and catch the birds, those 
Americans might give him ten cents and there would be 
two days' work done. But just see what happens. The 
little boy goes down by the house where the five Amer- 
icans live and the captive bird on his bamboo pole cries 
out. The Americans come to the window and look out. 
Then one of them shouts : 

-' Hey there ! Let that bird go \" 

However can a little boy, not more than six years, tell 
what that means ? America is very far away. He has 
never been there. He does not know what this big man 
is saying. He has heard that the Americans are pigs, but 
this is no pig ; it is a giant that is coming towards him, 
very angry. What can such a little boy do with such a 
giant, and, besides, there is a peseta in the American's 
hand. It is best to take that and see what will happen. 
The foolish American takes out a knife and cuts the string 
that binds the bird's foot to his perch on the pole. Then 
he shakes the pole, and the bird flies away. Was ever 
anything so witless ? It will be hard work to catch an- 



PUZZLING THE FILIPINOS 261 

other without the decoy — but there is the peseta. One 
gets ten cents for a live bird, or maybe six or four, but 
here is a peseta, and the bird is free. Perhaps now he can 
catch it again and get another peseta. But just when he 
makes ready his trap out rushes a big soldier with his gun 
and takes away the trap and breaks it. Surely it is hard 
to understand these people. It is not enough to break the 
trap. This friend of the little boy who comes now to 
throw a stone at the bird, the soldier takes him quickly, 
and to-morrow he may go to the big Judge. Just for a 
bird that is free. They are queer people, these Americans. 



Olivia she said her name was, with an utterly unspell- 
able and unpronounceable something else which she 
added when the interpreter asked ^^ Olivia que ?^' She 
didn^t differ in appearance from the thousand other 
Filipino women who carry bundles on their heads about 
the streets of Manila or manage two-by-four trading 
stations under the shade of a banana leaf along the 
country roads. Her hands were small and slender and 
her feet were large, flat and bare, accustomed by long 
use to travelling unshod over the rough macadam pave- 
ments and through the thorny jungle. The gaudy pifia 
camisa that slipped half way down her upper arms dis- 
closed the exquisitely moulded, graceful shoulders that 
are the common heritage of the daughters of the Philip- 
pines. Much carrying of burdens on her head had 
made her straight-backed and erect. Her cheekbones 
were high, her face broad, her nose flat, her eyes 
large and round, her chin very small, her mouth wide 
and full of teeth that had been white before constant 
betel-nut chewing had reddened and made them un- 
sightly. Her hair was as black as her eyes, well oiled and 
smoothed down mirror bright with a knot in the back of 
her neck. She must be nearly four and a half feet tall, 
with a complexion like a copper cent of the mintage of 
'63. The long full skirt of gay red and yellow sinamay 
cloth hung over a short white skirt and was draped with 
black, a short sort of overskirt of which hung just 
below the knees. Between the short camisa and the 
bright red saya a narrow strip of bare brown showed in 
curious contrast to the gay colours of the dress. 

Once in a while the wise men down here see some na- 



262 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

tive do sometliing which is just what would be done at 
home under the same circumstances. They waggle their 
wise heads and exclaim : 

" Ah, human nature is just the same the world over/' 

That is true, too. There are the same samenesses and 
the same differences and it is only because the differences 
here are different from what they have been used to at 
home that they remark the samenesses. But that gets 
away from Olivia, and she, although not so named before 
the court, was in reality the party of the first part. It 
began, of course, away back when there was devised with 
paradise the snake, but the specific development occurred 
in Cavite. Just a plain sordid case of man^s greed over- 
reaching itself, a ''^ win-by-his-aid and the aid disown^' 
experiment. Mariano Santos provided the aid, and if he 
had not been caught Benignio de la Cruz would have 
made the winning. As it happened the game was with 
chance, and chance won. 

For Uncle Sam's bright five-dollar gold pieces the 
banks in Manila were paying ten 'dobe dollars and thirty- 
five cents. Therein Benignio, who is a thief and a 
counterfeiter, perceived his opportunity. He was willing 
to give twenty-two 'dobe dollars, very 'dobe indeed, made 
in his own special 'dobe mint, for every new gold eagle 
Uncle Sam had paid his boys for risking their lives in 
his service, and as the boys had just received a fine new 
lot of American eagles and always are anxious to get the 
most silver for them possible, the twenty-two-dollar offer 
of Benignio had more favor with them than the more 
conservative proposition of the banks. Besides Benignio 
came to them in the person of Mariano, whereas they were 
obliged to go to the bank, which was somewhat difficult, 
owing to certain restrictions customary to military life. 
So they fell upon Mariano joyfully and he promptly cheated 
them. They were from South Dakota, and good judges of 
wheat or cattle or corn or land, but concerning silver they 
were more in touch with the theory than the metal. 
Therefore they were easy. But the first Filipino vender 
of wretched anise brandy on whom they tried Mariano's 
dollars quickly showed them the very 'dobe quality of 
Benignio's output and there was a descent on Mariano, 
who was caught with the damning evidence in his pockets. 

Pursuant to General Order No. 8 establishing the Pro- 



PUZZLING THE FILIPINOS 263 

vost Court, Mariano appeared in due time in the splendid 
room in the Ayuntemicento, where Colonel Jewett every 
morning dispenses justice with the wisdom of the Cadi 
aided by two interpreters. There Benignio came in, 
lugged unwittingly by Mariano, who promptly declared 
that he was but the humble and unworthy tool of the 
wicked and designing Benignio. There was the first 
demonstration of the kinship of the world. Now mark 
the complication and the entry of Olivia. 

Benignio lived in Tondo. Between his mansion of 
Nipa and the arm of the law, as represented in the Pro- 
vost Marshal^s guard, stretched a line of insurgent sol- 
diers, and there was at that time such feeling between 
the two forces that rather than risk the provocation of 
a conflict, the Provost Marshal-G-eneral decided to let 
Benignio go unpunished. Not so Olivia. Mariano had 
duly paid the priest his price, and he and she were one 
beyond legal possibility of separation. Moreover, Olivia 
has a woman^s wit when him she loves is in danger. She 
went to see Benignio in Tondo. Mariano was in jail, she 
said, but she could carry on the business in his place 
until he got out again. In fact, even at that time in 
the walled city she had a man waiting ready to buy a 
large supply of the very Mobe dollars. The crafty Be- 
nignio filled his pockets with his counterfeits — fancy the 
moral degradation of a man who will counterfeit Mobe dol- 
lars — and followed Olivia into Manila. In the little shop 
of a Chinaman on the Calle Eeal, right near the head- 
quarters of Colonel Eeeve's Thirteenth Minnesota police, 
she left Benignio while she went on to the appointed 
rendezvous to fetch the purchaser. But the man she 
brought back with her carried a gun, and Benignio fol- 
lowed Mariano to jail, stripped of the ^dobe dollars which 
had jingled in his pockets when the soldier took him. 
In court the next morning he said he was the helpless 
victim of a wicked woman's wiles. Will Adam never get 
over whining or Eve ever cease to bear the blame ? Now 
both Benignio and Mariano are in prison, but there is a 
chance for Mariano. 

The wise men are right after all. The kinship is 
demonstrated. For Tondo read Jersey City, for the 
walled city read New York, and wind up with " in the 
Jefferson Market Police Court yesterday morning," etc. 



264 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Casa Todos has made a great discovery. There is an 
expression in Spanish more common than ^' mailana." 
It is '' no puede.''' "When a thing is no puede yon might 
as well give it up right at the start. Casa Todos has made 
determined and persistent eUort to demonstrate the con- 
trary, but has wrought only failure. Casa Todos, it 
might be explained, is, literally, the ^'^ house entire." 
You can make what more liberal interpretation you like. 
Certain scoffers call it the *^ house altogether," because it 
is widely known that there is no latchstring whatever, and 
in entresuelOj where the ability to speak English is the 
only password, one may always find something to smoke 
and something else. Casa Todos does what it can to 
alleviate the horrors and the hardships of war, and its 
gates stand open to any man who owes allegiance to a 
free flag. The Colonel lends it dignity and gives it sage 
advice. The Colonel sports a coachman of his own, and 
a footman — at a total cost of eight iron dollars a month — 
and the Colonel wears grey hair and a ruddy complexion. 
All this endears him to the hearts of the four other mem- 
bers of the household, of whom one is " our special com- 
missioner," one ^' our war correspondent in the field," 
and the other two just plain reporters. But this is like 
Mis' Wagner's glass eye, something digressive. The dis- 
covery of ''no puede" was not made in a sudden burst of 
inspiration. It has been a slow process. Western activ- 
ity has not yet succumbed entirely to the delightful don't 
care of the tropical climate, and on the part of the news- 
paper men there occasionally arises something which must 
be done. The word which is least understood and least 
used in the Spanish vocabulary is the verb of necessity. 
The German compromises. He has a lot of words expres- 
sive of the desirability of immediate action, none of which 
ever accomplishes its result. But the unblushing Spaniard 
makes no such hollow pretence. He simply remarks 
"no puede" and that is all there is of it. At the start, 
when it was a case of ^'must" with the newspaper men 
and they encountered " no puede,'^ they raved and stormed 
and shouted " puede.^' Now if you only reply to a man 
who tells you something is not possible in the loud asser- 
tion that it is possible, you do not advance very far. 
Most of the early " no pnedes'' concerued transportation 
by boat. They were accompanied usually by remarks 



PUZZLING THE FILIPINOS 26$ 

from the boatmen to the effect that there was mnch wind, 
or a high sea. Much wind, a high sea, big waves, un- 
doubtedly are derogatory to travel in a hanca, which is 
nothing more than a dugout, and may or may not have a 
bamboo outrigger to steady it. If it happens, however, 
that a mail steamer is going and you must go out to the 
flagship, or miss not only the mail but the chance to send 
a cable to Hong Kong, you are likely to risk a wetting 
and reply with vigour to your boatmen. Before long the 
discussion with the boatmen, being confined to the narrow 
limits of '' 710 puede," ^' piiede,^' and '''no, senor,'^ reaches 
a point where action is imperative. Then you grab the 
native by the scruff of the neck, kick him " gently but 
firmly " a few times, and sling him into the boat. You 
tumble in yourself and make loud and vehement oration, 
using all the big words you know and explosive force 
alone. The result may be that the next day you have to 
hustle a new crew for your boat, but for once you have 
demonstrated the puedebility of " 7io puede/' 

The process, however, is wearing. You are sure to get 
wet ; the boatmen may be trusted to see to that. Every 
other wave almost will breach the boat, and one man must 
bail constantly. Wetting is nothing to the boatmen, it is 
a semi-normal condition. But for you it means quinine 
and whiskey and perhaps a day or two of fever, not enough 
to make much trouble, but just to keep you in the house 
and make you feel like thirty cents Mexican — absolutely 
no»good for anything. 

" The Christian riles and the Aryan smiles, and he 
weareth the Christian down.^ 

That is one phase of " no puede." You charter a steam 
launch at an unheard-of price in gold dollars per day. 
You risk heaven and earth to make the dicker. You for- 
swear allegiance to your own soul almost to persuade some 
" neutral '' whose war-ships can put him into Manila to go 
in and get the launch. He swears he risks his life and 
the confiscation of his property. You assure him your 
Government will recompense him for everything and give 
him a medal of honour, the Victoria Cross and the Cross of 
the Legion ; you dull his palm with entertainment and then 
you fill it with diner o. The launch is an absolute neces- 
sity and must be had at any cost. You cannot take the 
risk of being tied up on shore or on your ship by bad 



266 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

weather. You must be able to go about at will. Well, at 
last, when you have lost your soul beyond redemption, 
when even the bald spot on your head has turned grey, 
and you have frightened two or three native crews into an 
early decline, you get the launch, and your troubles on 
that score are over. Well, are they ? The most expres- 
sive word in the English language is ^'^nit," used in its 
derived and slang sense. You have overcome one " no 
puede," but a million more lie in wait for you. 

You tell the ^^ patron ^"^ that you will go out to the 
Olympia at 2 o'clock. '^ Si, senor," he says, and that's 
settled. At 2 o'clock you board the launch. There is 
a choppy sea on the bay, and you laugh, knowing what a 
fight you would have had with a tanca, but how easy it is 
with the launch. " Olympia," you shout to the '^patron'* 
(give it a long o and accent the last syllable), and he smiles 
his bland Aryan smile back at you and replies, ^'No puede 
sefbor." 

'^ Seven generations of devils in one hell j90r que no 9" 
you shout. 

Patron is undisturbed. ^' No hay mas carbon/' he says 
with a deprecatory gesture. 

Well, if that wouldn't jar down a stone wall. You have 
arranged with the Admiral for coal, you have fixed it 
with the General and the Quartermaster. You have 
dickered with the Englishman at the Canacao shipyard, 
and literally you have " coal to burn," and this teak-headed 
idiot of a patron has waited till the last minute to tell you 
that there is not enough in the launch to steam out to the 
flagship and back. Did you ever see the picture of the 
Man of Humanity who tried to save a calf from being 
converted into veal and was tied up into a compound, com- 
minuted, quadruple-expansion, double-back action, three- 
ply bow-knot with himself at the inside end of the lead 
rope and the calf at the other ? '' Oh/' says the Man of 
Humanity, '^'^ if I only had a knife ! " 

That's another style of '^ no puede" There are others. 
It is desirable in Casa Todos to have some light occasion- 
ally. For one thing it helps to keep off the mosquitoes, 
which are of such peculiar habits here that they prowl 
principally in the dark. It also enables you to keep bet- 
ter watch for the lizards and the house snakes, and if by 
any chance a snake should go hunting a rat, as the books 



PUZZLING THE FILIPINOS 26/ 

abont the Philippines say they do all the time, and there 
should be a fight, yon would want very badly to see it. 
Therefore you go to the electric light company and 
arrange to have wires run into the house. The easiest 
thing in this part of what was once Spain is to arrange 
for anything you want, the hardest thing is to get it. 
The affable manager of the electric company promises you 
light in plenty ^'maflana.''^ You know that's a lie, but 
you have hope for a week. Vain hope. Finally you 
buckle on your armour of wrathful determination and set 
out on the trail of the liar. A great accomplishment is the 
result. A man comes to Oasa Todos and walks all around 
it, counting the number of lights needed. Then he goes 
away with a smile on his copper face and a false promise 
in his heart. 

Another week and you take down your gun. In the 
gateway you meet a man from the electric light company. 
The only thing electric he has about him is a flow of 
Spanish. There is only one thing a Spaniard can do with 
speed, and that is talk. He can beat the World^s Fair 
Flyer with that. This fellow begins to talk and you 
listen, amazed, hopefully waiting for a familiar sound. 
You get it. It comes with the familiarity of paternal 
ancestry. '' No pttecle." You knew it, there's nothing 
to be surprised or angry about. You simply are curious 
as to why and you ask mildly. The answer develops 
a condition and not a theory. Something is the matter 
with ^' contador.''^ "^ Contador " perhaps is the lineman 
whose business it is to string the wires. You are sorry 
there is anything the matter with him and suggest that 
the company get a man to take his place. 

'' No senor, no puecle. '^ 

After all, you could hardly expect a place like this to 
support more than one lineman, and you resign yourself 
to fate and the use of candles. However, the Spaniard 
keeps on talking, and by close application you discover 
that Contador is dead. That is a pretty mess. The elec- 
tric business probably will have to stop now until his suc- 
cessor can come out from Spain. You hope they have 
cabled for him, but are afraid to ask. Then a great light 
breaks. Contador is not a man at all. It is a thing. 
Hope revives. Another contador can be made. You sug- 
gest it. ''Si, seiior,'' answers the man, pleased as Punch 



268 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

that 3^ou and he have reached a common level at last. Then 
more electric Spanish with liberal sprinkling of '^ vapor " 
and ^'Hong Kong/^ and at last the idea dawns on yon. 
Whatever the blessed thing is it mnst come from Hong 
Kong. Perhaps, by and by there will be light. 

The main from the ^^ Depot de aguas potables/' Sibont 
w^hiqh there has been so mnch negotiating with Aguinaldo, 
runs on the other side of the street from Casa Todos. 
Water is not much of a convenience to the average Spaniard, 
at least the Manila Spaniard, but to Casa Todos it is a 
necessity. We started out to get it and in the course of a 
week, having got as far as the inside door of the inside of- 
fice, we met our old enemy, ^^ contador.'^ Four newspaper 
men and a Colonel in Casa Todos are ready to make af- 
fidavit that there is no such a thing as ^' contador.-'^ The 
word represents a purely imaginative object which is sup- 
posed to have something to do with water and electricity. 
Keally, however, it is a synonym of '^ no puede." We 
never have seen a ^' contador." Light we have and water 
we hope for, but ^' contador " i\ever has appeared. 

These are only a few of the things that are " no puede" 
such as occur offhand. ^^ Manana'^ i^n'i in it yfith.^' no 
puede.'" No puede is really the pitedeest puede in the 
whole show. 

Tattersall came as a coachman, but stayed as cook. He 
is a person of sorts, with more ability in certain lines of 
controversy than Rufus Choate. Rufus has been part of 
the household of Casa Todos since before there was either 
Casa or Todos. He was carrying boxes of tent pins and 
barrack slippers from the casco at the wharf in Cavite one 
day up to the Quartermaster's storehouse, and he got tired. 
So he put on his blue speckled, red-striped yellow jusi 
camisa and came up into my room and announced that he 
was my mucliaclio. Valentine Ruiz, the boss stevedore, 
who had been affecting to serve in that capacity for a few 
days, but who never did anything but me, had received 
his dishonourable discharge two days before, and had occu- 
pied the interval in sitting on the stairway, smiling good- 
naturedly, and talking Tagalog to all applicants for his 
place, with the result that they left immediately and never 
came back. Observing this, I had just kicked Valentine 
deftly downstairs and threatened to use him for shark 



PUZZLING THE FILIPINOS 269 

bait if he ever came back, when Eufns Choate appeared. 
The effect of his observation of this somewhat violent per- 
formance seemed to put Rufus in a proper mood, for he 
left his slippers on the bottom step and came in barefooted 
as a well-trained and respectful muchaclio should. More- 
over, not having had opportunity to talk with Valentine he 
was not more than 150 per cent, above the ordinary market 
price of such labour in his demand for pay. In addition to 
these distinct qualifications, he knows half a dozen phrases 
of pidgin English and does not sport an inch or two of 
surplus nail on his fingers. His teeth too, are not stained 
with betel nut. 

Considering these things, I bought Rufus Choate for a 
modest sum, and thereby became possessed of a family of 
several picaninnies, with a regiment of insurgents as re- 
tainers and half a dozen relatives in Bilibid prison. Also 
— but that came out later, as did the knowledge of the 
great responsibility assumed — I became possessed of a first- 
class walking delegate. George Washington having been 
blinded by shooting a primer into his own eyes, Rufus 
Choate speedily made himself a place in my affections and 
account book. He began by upbraiding me for paying 
fifty cents for a pair of slippers which he assured me were 
worth only forty. That was the first evidence he showed 
of the willingness which characterised that other Rufus 
Choate of whom this one never heard. By several such 
deft little means he assumed the ascendancy over my life 
and actions, which gradually developed into a general 
mastery of the house and all in it. He determined that 
the doors of my room should be closed at night. Ex- 
planation was '' no puede" the doors remained closed. It 
being the rainy season, he kept the windows closed. It 
was too much trouble to get up and shut them if it rained 
in the night. He regulated my work-table every morning, 
and he put some things away so skilfully that they have 
not yet reappeared. 

Thus Rufus Choate waxed and grew strong in his own 
domain. There was a slight check when Cervera came. 
Cervera had been Vice- Admiral and stroke oar in the 
pulling-boat commanded by Admiral Senor don Sideache, 
but Senor Sideache is worth a volume of his own. When 
Vice- Admiral Cervera was promoted to command an apart- 
ment in Casa Todos Rufus Choate made the earth-quaking 



270 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

discovery that his own pay was smaller than Cervera's by 
as much as two pesetas a month. That almost wrecked a 
happy home. There was a counsel of war in the entresuelo 
of the horses' quarters, and it was apparent that Euf us had 
reached a grave determination when it was not half over. 
Then Daniel and Josephus, named and famed for their 
wisdom and their works, were called in. Presently the 
meat in the cocoanut was reached, and there was trouble 
a-brewing. Kufus Choate led the delegation that waited 
upon their subjects. The tale was long and principally 
concerned with " mucho trahajo.'^^ Trahajo, it appears, 
is the lot of every man who sweeps floors with a wet rag 
and washes dishes with a stick. It appeared that there 
was an over-supply of tralajo in Casa Todos, and an under- 
supply of dinero, evidenced by the fair wage received by 
Cervera and the beggarly pittance of Euf us Choate, Daniel 
and Josephus- 

To the practical American mind the remedy was in- 
stantly apparent, but when it was applied it was a tremen- 
dous surprise to the walking delegate and his strikers. It 
was the simple process of cutting down Cervera to fit the 
rank of the others. Euf us Choate had never contemplated 
such a possibility, and the blow was a staggerer. But he re- 
covered before long, and there was the old jaunty swagger 
in his walk when Tattersall came. What business so emi- 
nent a horseman as Tattersall has to do with the intricate 
machinery of a kitchen would puzzle evenaEufus Choate, 
but Tattersall said he was as good a cook as a coachmam. 
Nothing has developed to show what he knows about 
coaching, but he is a good cook. Moreover, the price he 
set upon his labours was less by several 'dobe pesos than 
that fixed as the scale for the Admiral, the lawyer, the 
prophet and the historian. 

We foresaw the trabajo this would produce, and we set 
out to forestall it. Of course, as cook, Tattersall makes 
the purchases for the table, and therein lies his op- 
portunity. We knew that, but the union knew that we 
knew it too, and there was not much show of persuading 
him to strike for the union scale. Moreover, Tattersall is 
of stern aspect and forbidding mien, and apparently they 
hesitated to tackle him. We watched the uncertain 
struggle with themselves for two days, and then the blow 
fell. We summoned an interpreter, and with the whole 



PUZZLING THE FILIPINOS 2/1 

household assembled, the Colonel, the Commissioner, the 
correspondent and the two reporters on one side, and the 
horseman-cook, the lawyer, the Admiral, the historian and 
the prophet on the other, we made proclamation. With a 
single stroke we attained onr freedom, and smashed the 
union scale. Euf as Choate, Admiral Cervera, Daniel and 
Josephuswere reduced to their proper rank relative to the 
importance and pay of Tattersall. It was a crusher, but 
the Filipinos are a patient people. Three hundred years 
of oppression have fitted them to receive pay only once 
and a half the market price, and the union succumbed. 
Now, if Tattersall can be persuaded not to put garlic in 
everything he cooks, we may be happy yet, you bet. 



Sideache was the coxswain of the pullboat. He and 
Cervera, the stroke, and Papa Eavinet, No. 2, and Galileo, 
the star-gazer in the bow, were among those on the Reina 
Cristina who learned a thing or two about war from Dewey 
on the 1st of May. Papa Ravinet had the creative as well 
as the detective instinct. If he were sent after some 
special trophy or souvenir and couldn't find it he had one 
made to order and turned up proudly in due time with his 
errand well performed. Sideache was and is a master in 
his way, but his arithmetic is faulty. Having misappro- 
priated four silver dollars given him for the purchase of 
pina cloth he failed to return for a week's wages, thereby 
forfeiting one large round peso. As a linguist Sideache 
had rather limited attainments. His stock of Tagalog was 
large and varied and he could hurl more kinds of words 
ending in ^'^ang" at his men than the four of them could 
throw back. His Spanish was confined principally to 
muclio viento, muclio mareada, muclio agua, muclio trahajo 
and no puecle. It will be perceived that all are terms of 
objection to doing something and it was the insistence of 
the passengers that not the wind or the waves or the rain 
or the trouble prevented the possibility of doing what they 
desired that gave the coxswain the sideache. 

The worst case of pain Sideache had was probably that 
caused by a trip from the sheep ship lying in the bay over 
to Paranaque. Sideache and his men and the boat were 
the special retainers of one of the reporters. That reporter 
and myself started from the Culgoa just at sundown to 
spend a night in the trenches. Sideache declared that it 



2/2 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

was ^' no puede" to get to Paranaque, and in that he came 
pretty near being right for once. There was a fresh breeze 
and the waves were running pretty high. But the wind 
was in our favour and we got the sunshade hoisted on one 
oar and sailed along pretty comfortably, only occasionally 
shipping a sea. It had been a nasty day, close shut in by 
sullen clouds, and now as we got fairly started a terrible 
black cloud came swiftly out of the southeast. Sideache 
was troubled in spirit. The boat had hit a rock some- 
where the day before and there was a bad leak in the bow. 
It kept one man busy pretty nearly all the time bailing. 
The wind rose and night fell utterly black and impene- 
trable. In the daylight Paranaque is distinguishable 
above the heavy green fringe along the beach by the dome 
of the old church. At night there was only the black 
tree rim to be seen and that night even that was blotted out. 

Then came a wonderful exhibition of the phosphores- 
cence in the tropic sea. The wake of the boat was a 
broad belt of flame that trailed yards away behind us and 
was broken into little gleaming hillocks by the waves. 
Each oar drove a streak of silver through the water and 
on the recover dripped little globes of liquid light in a 
brilliant trail. The crests of the curling waves broke into 
showers of scintillating star dust and the men and oars 
were sharply silhouetted in the glow. The black cloud 
covered the sky and broke. The myriad raindrops beat 
down uplifted combers and spread a fairy carpet of fiery 
lacework over the bay. Every dfop was a globule of fire 
and even the native boatmen paused in their work to 
wonder and admire. 

The sail came down and we went on through the neb- 
ulous glow with only the oars. Suddenly out of the dark 
behind us flashed the red and white signal lights of the 
Charleston, anchored inshore to protect Camp Dewey. 
We watched them spelling their message through the 
darkness to the fleet, and before we could realise how 
far out of our way we had gone in the inky darkness 
there loomed up ahead the tall bamboo poles of a fish- 
trap, swaying gently in the sea, and ringed about with 
mellow fire. The boat crashed ahead through the poles 
and left a gleaming chain woven in and out among the 
poles. Then the boom and the flare of the surf warned 
us that we had missed the Paranaque river and were on 



PUZZLING THE FILIPINOS 273 

the bar. A huge roller lifted the boat and hurled it 
forward, a gleaming firebrand, into the darkness ahead. 
Then the comber rolled on toward the beach with its 
blazing crest and left us impotently pounding on the bar. 
The frightened boatmen tried to turn around, but the 
next swell catching the boat broadside, broke over it in 
silvery spray, every drop a ball of light. Senor Sideache 
turned loose his Tagalog. Instantly the heath's crew re- 
solved itself into a debating society, and for the two pas- 
sengers it became simply a question of Avhen the ducking 
would come. They managed, however, to swing the boat 
back head toward the beach, and we crawled in over the bar, 
pounding the leaky bottom on the hard sand as each 
swell passed us. Up and down the beach we struggled, 
trying vainly to find a landmark. The wall of night sur- 
rounded us, unfriendly, black and impenetrable. Behind 
us the shining sea marked our pathway. To seaward 
the fiery surf broke in angry roars over the bar. South 
we went, pounding along in the shallow water or smash- 
ing through fish traps that twinkled with a million rings 
of fire. At last a friendly gleam on shore showed us 
that we were almost at Los Pifias, miles below Para- 
fiaque. Back again through blackness, our trail marked 
by the gleaming water. An hour of hard work brought 
us even with the Charleston's lights asfain. We had 
passed Paranaque on the other side. We would have 
waded ashore, but we had managed to keep fairly dry 
so far, and we had no desire to get wet before it was 
necessary. There was plenty of time, anyway. The fight- 
ing in the trenches would not begin until nearly 10 o'clock, 
and it was not yet 8. One more try to the south, and this 
time a little further inshore. We had hardly started when 
bang on the beach we went again and this time the men 
went overboard. When they had got the boat clear again 
one of them had disappeared. A fiery streak in the water 
marked his path toward shore. Presently the glow behind 
him went out. He had reached the shore. We sat still 
and waited. By and by the sound of voices came back to 
us in the lull of the surf. Then a dog barked. Then 
lights appeared, and Sideache shouted. The oarsmen got 
to work, the boat turned to the north again, and we started 
away under the guidance of the sliouts from the invisible 
shore. At length there was a harder shouting than usual. 
18 



2/4 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Sideaclie responded by putting his helm to port. The 
boat swung round. The roar of the fiery surf behind us 
died away. Lights appeared on both sides. The water 
was quiet as a millpond. We were in the Paranaque Eiver. 
In half an hour we were on the way to Camp Dewey and 
the California boys got their case of whiskey after all. 



Casa Todos gave a dinner last night. It was entirely 
impromptu, but it went off like a charm. There was only 
one accident. That was when the boy who was waving 
the fly-scarer — the punkah is not up yet — happened to hit 
the lamp. One of the crystal pendants was knocked off 
and fell in the sugar bowl. It split off a piece of the 
bowl and caromed into the lady's soup plate, splashing 
a bit of the soup on her dress. But she didn^t mind. 
She is a thoroughbred American, the only one here. She 
followed her husband, who is a " special correspondent," 
and came down from Hong Kong before the surrender, 
breaking through the blockade as '' stewardess " of a supply 
ship. The boys of Casa Todos — Daniel, the prophet ; 
Eufus Choate, the lawyer ; Cervera, the sailor, and Jose- 
phus, the historian — were tremendously impressed by the 
appearance of the American lady at the table, and they 
put on their widest smiles and their cleanest camisas for 
the distinguished occasion. The constant watchfulness of 
the special commissioner, the correspondent in the field 
and the two reporters — the Colonel had deserted to the 
fleet for the night — managed to keep things going the 
lady's way without any serious break, barring the soup in- 
cident, until it came to the matter of finger bowls. Now 
Casa Todos boasts of only three finger bowls in its present 
economy, and its distinguished staff of assistants has not 
been trained thoroughly in their management as yet. The 
special commissioner sent a telepathic signal around the 
table, and the conversation took on a sudden burst of orig- 
inality and generality. One of the reporters engaged the 
attention of the lady with his most moving tale, and the 
special commissioner made signal to Cervera. It was in 
the international code, but the Admiral misread it. The 
other reporter and the correspondent in the field set their 
signals and added hoarse commands meant to be soto 
voce. Cervera plainly was beyond his depth, and Eufus 
Choate and Daniel ran to his assistance. Somehow they 



PUZZLING THE FILIPINOS 275 

managed to grasp the idea of the bowl, probably from the 
fact that the special commissioner had both hands on the 
one which was used as a salt cellar and was calling in a 
tragic whisper, *^Xo mismo, igual, this, this." It was 
Daniel who achieved this distinction, and he cleared the 
eight feet between himself and the lady at one jump and 
set the bowl proudly in front of her. She smiled and said, 
^' Thank you." It was empty. 

The reporter let out a new leaf in his moving tale, and 
the special commissioner grew red and blue in the face. 
^^ Agua,'' he hissed across the table. "^Agua, you pumpkin- 
headed square-face. Agua." 

A gleam of almost human intelligence crossed the face 
of Kufus Choate, the chief bandar, and he grasped she 
water monkey. With a quick, deft yank he snatched a 
long glass from the sideboard, set it in front of the lady 
and filled it to the brim. There was agiia a-plenty. 

Eight there the lady won the special decoration of the 
order of Todos, less ancient, indeed, than the star and 
garter, but more exclusive and honourable even than the 
famous order of Enchados. Not a smile was suggested by 
her expression and she listened with all attention to the 
moving tale of the reporter. The story went on with 
renewed vigour. It crossed mountains and leaped valleys, 
traversed deserts and vaulted over oceans. The lady was 
attention itself and the special commissioner, the corre- 
spondent in the field and the other reporter decreed field 
target practice in the morning, with the distinguished staff 
as the targets. The correspondent in the field was further 
afield just then than he ever had been before. Even his all- 
serv'iceable word esta failed him and the omnipotent 
^^ todos " availed him not. He whispered hoarsely ''^ Otro " 
and the other reporter twisted a napkin into a fan and 
worked it vigorously for his benefit. The distinguished 
staff stood amazed and perplexed. Then Cervera reached 
the crowning distinction of his life. He grasped the idea 
that water was wanted in the finger bowl. Then he grasped 
the finger bowl. He snatched it deftly away from in front 
of the lady, knocking her fruit knife into her lap and up- 
setting her coffee cup, which, by the favour of heaven, was 
empty. He carried the finger bowl to the sideboard, filled 
it to the brim from the water monkey and replaced it in front 
of the lady with a smile that would have moved the Sphinx 



2/6 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

to tears. The correspondent in the field collapsed, the 
other reporter lost his artistic self in contemplation of the 
tortoise shell on the wall, and as for the special commis- 
sioner, " his hope was crushed, his after fate untold in 
martial strain/' 

The husband of the lady sat like a graven image. The 
distinguished staff rocked on their bare feet with anxious 
uncertainty. The fly-scarer was forgotten. The moving 
tale was finished and the narrator was silent. The lady 
turned and looked at the finger-bowl and the gale that 
swept around the festal board of Casa Todos carried with 
it the sound of genuine, hearty, free American laughter. 
Casa Todos's impromptu dinner was a success. 

'''There are some of the horrors of peace,'' said the 
Colonel, " which we who have come to war have escaped. 
We have been here now three months, and not a yellow 
journal has issued an extra, nor has the crime of '73 been 
mentioned yet." 

In the old days, when the Major was a Second Lieutenant 
and vegetated through long seasons at frontier posts in 
the Southwest, Thursday — that isn't his name, but it's 
mighty near it — was a gentleman. '' The only gentlemen 
down there," says the Major, "were the gamblers and 
barkeepers." Thursday ran a bank, and a wheel, and a 
round game or two, and in a gentlemanly way did a gentle- 
man's business, as Arizona and New Mexico understood it. 
Thursday made money. He wore fine clothes and kept 
himself as a gentleman should. The Major — he was a 
Lieutenant then — was shifted to another post, and Thurs- 
day dropped out of his range. By and by the war came, 
and the Major was sent out here. Thursday was an almost 
obliterated recollection. 

The other night word came in to the Major in his quarters 
that a private soldier wanted to see him downstairs. The 
Major had guests for dinner. He stepped down to the 
entresuelo and there stood Thursday, smooth shaven, soft- 
handed and clean as in the old days, but in the brown 
canvas of a private soldier. The Major could hardly be- 
lieve his eyes. He caught the soldier's hand and gave it 
a shake. 

" For God's sake, Thursday," he exclaimed, " what are 
you doing here ? " 



SUNSET OVER MINDORO 2/7 

Thursday _aiighed. '^^Igot patriotic/' he said, *'^and 
here I am/' 

Patriotism was a good thing while there was chance of 
action, but garrison duty had no spice in it for the gambler. 
Briefly, he wanted his discharge, and could the Major do 
anything for him ? The Major could not, and he said so 
frankly. 

'^You're up against it, Thursday,'' he said, ^'^ and 
you've got to serve your time."" 

Thursday laughed again. '* Well," he said, ^' I'm game 
to serve it." 

But if he had to stay in the army he must have some 
sport, and sport required money for a start. 

^* Certainly," said the Major; '^'^what do you want ? '^ 
The position had been reversed more than once and any- 
thing he had Thursday could get. The soldier wanted 
only a ten-dollar gold piece, and that was all he would 
take, in spite of the Major's pressing offer of more. He 
took the eagle and went away. 

Last night he came to see the Major again. ^^ Major," he 
said, " would you mind taking care of a little bit of money ? 
I don't like to have it about me in camp. It's only four 
hundred, gold. Hell, no ! I don't want a receipt." 



CHAPTEE XL 

SUNSET OVEE mi:n'doeo 

Ss. BuTUAi^, Sept. 25. — Formal notice was served on 
the Captain of the Port that the Butuan would leave 
Manila for Iloilo at 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon. But 
this was because the ship was owned by Englishmen. 
The real hour of departure Avas 6 o'clock this morning, 
and by that time the natives and Spaniards who began to 
prepare for a start at the advertised time were ready and 
aboard. We got word in the middle of the afternoon con- 
fidentially that the ship would not leave her berth until 
this morning. So we didn't board until midnight. 

At 5 : 30 there was a fearful racket on deck. Seven 
or eight ancient Spaniards in steel armour were being 
dragged up and down by the heels. Nothing else could 
make such a row. We rolled out and found that they 
were only heaving anchor. It's a process which requires 



278 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

an extensive knowledge of practical mechanics and higher 
mathematics, to say nothing of astronomy, navigation, 
astrology and ethnology, to describe. The amazing thing 
about it was that it worked, and, after the dreadful ham- 
mering and thumping had proceeded for three-quarters 
of an hour or more, the anchor was weighed, and we were 
off down the Pasig. 

You lie in your big chair and fitfully read, doze and 
gaze at the far lines of blue-green hills that climb up out of 
the sea on each side. As the vessel rounds down along the 
Batangas coast, a bell rings and some one says breakfast 
is served. It is 10 : 80 o^clock. There are twenty 
passengers in the cabin, and they all crowd into the 12 by 
12 saloon and find places about the two tables. At the 
end of one is the Captain, a sharp-faced 5^oung Spaniard, 
who spreads his elbows clear across the table and gives a 
marvellous example of sword swallowing. The meal be- 
gins with wine and ends with boiled custard and guava 
jelly — and they call it breakfast. But you^d better eat it. 
There'll be no more until 5 o'clock. 

The hills of Batangas fade out in purple mist and disap- 
pear. Over the starboard bow rise out of the shining sea 
the green wooded uplands of Mindoro. Dark clouds hang 
over them occasionally veiling them in mist. So all the 
afternoon, bright sunshine on Luzon, gloom over Mindoro, 
and the sea alternately green and flashing under the un- 
clouded sun, or sullen and lashed into foam by a veering 
squall. And the sunset over Mindoro, a sunset that filled 
all the world wath glory and died away in a last sanguinary 
stroke only when the moon tinged with silver the blood 
stains on the cloudbanks. It began far away in the east, 
v/here a single pillar of white fleecy cloud suddenly set its 
danger signal of flame along its length. The little spots 
of white that had surrounded it at respectful distance for 
the last hour or more turned rose pink and huddled to- 
gether, as if in fright or dismay. A careless wanderer in 
the south blushed to the eyes at the sight. Athwart the 
north flashed a lance of gleaming scarlet. Then down be- 
hind the high, dark hills the sun unmasked his batteries 
for the last onslaught of the day. 

Charge after charge of molten fire he hurled up into the 
solid cloudbanks gathered above the hilltops. Streaked 
and spattered with flame and blood, they stood to their 



SUNSET OVER MINDORO 279 

work, but their ranks were broken and scattered by the 
fierce attack. Their dull grey uniforms took on the hues 
of battle, and in detachments they were purple and blue 
and black and bronze and deep violet. The warning sig- 
nals that had flashed round the heavens brought reinforce- 
ments from every quarter. From the cold north a long 
column of Royal Lancers in brilliant apple green supported 
the charge of the dull red heavy dragoons. In the east 
the beacon fires flamed up in a last desperate call for help. 
In the south the first reckless wanderer was gathering a 
violet host. 

Over Mindoro the conflict raged and the glory of it filled 
the heavens. Half way up a blue-black hill, a solid col- 
umn of steel-grey stopped and threw a bridge across a pre- 
cipitous valley to the huge blue-black hill beyond. The 
flame-coated warriors of the sun, advancing from their in- 
trenchments on the eastern slopes, gained the heights and 
tipped the peaks with fire. For an instant the contest held 
an equal balance, then back on their supports on the 
blue-black hills fell the hosts of purple and grey. Across 
the hilltops the flame soldiers threw a brilliant banner 
of yellow that flecked with the myriad red stains of con- 
flict stretched from the cold green north far over the co- 
horts of violet gathering in reserve in the south. From 
blue hill to blue hill the steel-grey reinforcements swarmed 
across this bridge to renew the attack. The violet squad- 
rons of the south moved up in solid column. Slowly the 
flame coats gave way. Back over the ground they had 
won they went. Their brilliant banner of yellow came 
down from the peaks. The green lancers from the cold 
north streamed after them. The grey hosts climbed higher 
and higher, and massed in triumph on the hilltops. But 
the flame coats were not beaten. Down through the pre- 
cipitous valley they marched, and, flanking the grey-clad 
armies on the peaks attacked the bridge. Little detach- 
ments of flame scouts and skirmishers ran along its tim- 
bers and arches and beams and turned them into fire. 
The glare of the conflagration shot up to the hilltops and 
warned the green lancers and their grey and purple 
allies. For a moment there was commotion and uncer- 
tainty. A great rose-pink courier leaped off the highest 
peak and dashed down to the bridge. But it was the last 
rally of the flame coats. The violet squadrons from the 



28o OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

sonth engulfed them at the instant of their success. A 
single beacon flamed in the south, proclaiming the victory. 
In the cold north a spire of green responded. The 
gorgeous conflict was over. 



CHAPTER XLI 

ILOILO 

Manila, Oct. 19. — All the way down to Hollo we sat on 
the deck of the Butuan and admired the low-lying, far- 
away mirage-like islands that dotted the horizon. Covered 
as they were with tall, slender, bushy-topped cocoanut 
palms, they somehow explained the charm and the glamour 
which they cast over the immortal Stevenson, and we 
understood, as we looked at them, how possible it seemed 
to him for any man to surrender all that ordinarily makes 
the more populous haunts of civilisation delightful, and 
to settle himself forever in the South Seas. Of course 
these are not the South Seas, speaking with strict refer- 
ence to latitude, but in climate and characteristics the 
islands are practically the same. One couldn't help think- 
ing, with these islands in view-, how easy and how delight- 
ful it would be just to take one of them and be a king. 
Can't you imagine the picture — the wide, low bamboo 
house on the beach, surrounded by all sorts of gorgeous 
flowering trees, protected by the stately cocoanut palms, 
the broad white stretch of sand in front, the long lazy rolls 
of the ocean, the thick green foliage behind, the broad 
verandas under the heavy thatch — and just nothing to do 
but be a king ? Somehow it gets over one much as even 
Louis Beck's terrible stories of blood and awful wicked- 
ness of the licentious, brutal South Sea white men weave 
their spell in spite of their subjects. 

In the morning, just after we had made the seventeenth 
or twenty-fourth selection of the islands where we would 
set up our special kingdoms, we rounded the north end of 
Panay, and there loomed up on the coast line, tall and 
gaunt. Pan de Azucar (sngar loaf), and it took us back 
in an instant to Champlain and old Hurricane. Then for 
miles we saw the beautiful White Mountain scenery done 
over again in these tropic seas, only now and then approach- 
ing close enough to shore for the distinguishing foliage 



ILOILO 28 T 

of the great cocoa palms and the bananas to rob us of the 
pleasant illusion. We forgot all about being kings. We 
were willing to surrender all our interest in the Philippines 
for the smallest legal consideration. Good old New York 
was good enough for us, and anybody could have these 
islands who wanted to come and take them. 

There were four of us in the party, the first Americans 
who had tried to get beyond the limits of Luzon : 
McCutcheon, who divides the honour of hailing from 
Indiana with Colonel Jewett and draws pictures and 
writes things for the edification of the Windy City ; Bass, 
who carried a camera along the firing line the day that 
General Merritt took Manila by '^ assault " ; Mrs. Bass, who 
was the first American woman down here, and is the 
most expert jusi shopper in these old Spanish possessions, 
and myself. We had started out with the modest inten- 
tion of travelling about the islands for a general " look-see ^' 
and with characteristic American freedom had forgotten 
our passports. That didn't bother us particularly until 
one of our fellow-passengers, Mr. Balfour, manager of 
the Iloilo branch of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, 
told us that probably we would not be allowed to land in 
Iloilo. However, he said he would see Mr. Duncan, the 
British Vice-Consul in Iloilo, for us and discover what 
could be done. Presently we struck a common bond with 
Balfour in our admiration of Kobert Louis Stevenson, and 
it developed that the Iloilo banker is a first cousin of the 
great story-writer and a member of the family to which 
the venturesome David Balfour belonged. 

After all, it wasn't so difficult getting into Iloilo. After 
we had gone by the little bunch of islands at the mouth of 
the harbour, which they call the Seven Sins, and had 
dropped anchor off the old fort, a steam launch came out 
with some officials and a lot of Civil Guards. The Civil 
Guards stood at the gangway with their guns, and it was 
rumoured about the ship very promptly that nobody was 
to be allowed to land. But we were reassured by seeing 
Mr. Balfour get aboard the launch with his luggage and 
his boy and go away. Then the Captain told us that the 
ship would lie at anchor until about 5 o'clock waiting for 
the tide, when she would go up into the river to her 
berth. As we lay there waiting we had ample opportunity 
to observe a characteristic Spanish trait. The harbour of 



282 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Iloilo is practically an open roadstead between a little 
tongue of low-lying alluvial land through which the river 
runs, and the bluff, hilly island of Guimarras, about a 
mile and a half or two miles away. The town, instead of 
being built on the high ground of Guimarras, where there 
is excellent opportunity for proper drainage and sanitation, 
is placed on the flat river bank, where every spring tide 
or unusually higli water inundates the streets, and drain- 
age is absolutely out of the question. Fever runs its 
course unchecked in Iloilo, but across the deep roadstead 
healthful Guimarras laughs at the sickly city. 

About 5 o'clock a steam launch came back from the 
city with a very dapper little Spanish officer, Avho was the 
Captain of the Port. He saluted us gravely and we shook 
hands and bowed and smiled and said everything about 
Iloilo was extremely beautiful and were just as polite as if 
we had pockets full of passports. They set the infernal 
windlass going, and after awhile hauled up sixty or seventy 
fathoms of cable and got their old mudhook aboard, and 
np the river we Avent. There was great speculation in the 
American colony of Iloilo as represented on the Butuan 
as to what was going to happen when the ship reached her 
berth. Mrs. Bass announced that she was going ashore 
that night, and had her boy collect the baggage and bring 
it up on the forward deck. Bass was non-committal, and 
McCutcheon and I were doubtful and unenthusiastic. Bass 
was fortified with an old cedula which he had thoughtfully 
stored away in his pocket-book. It was only a memento 
of his Manila experience, and was made out in the name of 
another man, but he seemed to think that on a pinch he 
could bluff it through. At last we were tied up alongside 
the river bank in front of a big go-down, and a couple of 
long planks w^ere thrown out to the shore. Then some 
Spanish officials came aboard, and the dapper little Cap- 
tain of the Port shouted to a man whom he saw in front 
of the go-down to come over and interpret. 

The interpreter talked in rapid Spanish for a minute or 
two with the Captain of the 'Port. The Captain bowed 
and smiled, we bowed and smiled, and the interpreter told 
us that General Rios, who had succeeded General Jaudenes 
as Captain-General of the Philippines after the surrender 
of Manila was waiting in his palace to receive us, and 
would be charmed to have us call upon him at once. Our 



ILOILO 283 

baggage was to be sent ashore immediately, if desired, and 
a carriage was waiting for us. "We were overwhelmed. 
We bowed and smiled and shook hands with the Captain 
of the Port, the interpreter and the Captain of the ship 
and any one else who came around and said we were over- 
joyed, and would immediately present ourselves to his 
iSxcellency. Then we lost no time in hustling our baggage 
off the ship, and promptly followed it down. Mr. Balfour 
was there to meet us, and then we learned the wherefore 
of this amazing reception. Mr. Duncan had been to see 
his Excellency in our behalf, and had assured him that we 
were quite harmless, and merely desired to see something 
of the beauties of the wonderful Philippines before we 
hurried away home to America, where we were going 
very soon. General Kios had expressed himself as being 
very much pleased to offer us the hospitality of Iloilo, and 
of all the islands in his jurisdiction, and from our point of 
view the prospect was lovely. 

Now another complication presented itself of which we 
had not dreamed. There was no hotel in Iloilo, no sign 
of a public place where we could stop. It was the Spanish 
custom for travellers to go to the Tribunal, or office of the 
public administration, and it was the business of the 
Government to put them up, furnish to them attendants 
and horses and carriages, and in all sorts of ways admin- 
ister to their comfort and their pleasure. But this was 
not to be expected for us under the circumstances. How- 
ever, it appeared that there never had been any question 
in the minds of the Englishmen of Iloilo as to what we 
were to do. It was understood among them without 
ever saying a word that they were to put us up, and they 
did it in a fashion which can never be adequately de- 
scribed or repaid. They said they were glad to see us. 
They had been looking for Americans anxiously and hope- 
fully for a long time. The subsequent proceedings bore 
out their assertion that they were pleased. It remains 
for us only to express the feeble hope that some time we 
shall have the opportunity of meeting them on our heath. 
They took us at once to their homes and they said with 
Spanish courtesy that their homes were ours as long as we 
chose to stay, and the only difference between their asser- 
tion and a Spanish assertion of similar import was that 
they meant what they said. It was the Stars and Stripes 



284 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

and long may they wave from start to finish throughout 
our stay in Iloilo. 

We went at once to the Hong Kong Bank *' and then they 
drank a health all round/' The first peculiarity apparent 
about the Englishmen in Iloilo was that they were all 
Scotch. We were met most enthusiastically by two 
Thompsons, a Buchanan, a Balfour, a Murray, a G-rey, a 
Fleming, an Underwood, two Chienes and a dozen or more 
others, besides Mr. Duncan, the Vice-Consul, who is act- 
ing as the American representative in Iloilo and had assisted 
so admirably in arranging our unpassported admission. The 
first thing was to go and call on the General, and we went 
without waiting to get into white clothes or prepared for 
any formalities. At the G-overnor's residence we were 
very cordially received and informed that the General 
would be very glad to see us undoubtedly, but that, unfor- 
tunately he was out at that time and would we kindly 
come in the morning. So we left our cards and went 
away, glad that it was so. That night there was celebra- 
tion of the arrival of the first Americans in Iloilo, celebra- 
tion in the good old way, with a continual call of '^ Uno ! 
Uno ! Trae whiskies y sodas " and much singing of the 
good old songs, and it was 1 o'clock or maybe earlier when 
^' God Save the Queen '^ and ^' The Star-Spangled Banner " 
shut up the piano and quiet brooded over the first night 
of the American invasion. 

The first thing in the morning was the call on General 
Eios. We went formally and in state, all four of us, in 
company with Mr. Balfour and one of the employes of the 
bank as interpreter. General Eios received us in his pri- 
vate office. He is a fine big man with very pleasant manner 
and handsome face. His hair is very soft and fine and 
silver-white and his beard shows only here and there an 
evidence that it was once black. He was very gracious and 
suave. We told him that we desired to see for ourselves 
the far-famed beauties of his island. He smiled and said 
they were indeed beautiful. Then he suggested that after 
we had seen the notable objects of interest about Iloilo we 
should go to Mindanao. He himself had served in Min- 
danao. He was in command there when Augustin and 
Jaudenes surrendered in Manila, and he had been promoted 
to the supreme command of what was left of Spanish pos- 
sessions in the Philippines. 



ILOILO 285 

He was very familiar with Mindanao. He told us that 
there were many objects of great interest in that island. 
He suggested that we should go to Iligan. We were 
charmed. Iligan was the main object of our desires so 
far as Mindanao was concerned. General Rios said that 
it was a very interesting place. He suggested that when 
we had seen Higan we should take a trip back into the in- 
terior to the lake. We were delighted. If there was one 
thing which we desired more than to visit Iligan it was to 
visit the lake, and it was especially good of his Excellency 
to afford us facilities for that journey. General Rios 
smiled and bowed and said that he would be very glad to 
give us a letter from his own hand to the General com- 
manding in Mindanao which would facilitate our move- 
ments about that island. No further passports would be 
necessary, and we could go wherever we pleased. We 
thanked him again, and he suggested that we should go to 
Cottabatta, on the south coast of Mindanao and make a 
trip up the Rio Grande. That is the great show of Min- 
danao, and we were overwhelmed. We had difficulty this 
time in expressing our gratification and our thanks to his 
Excellency. 

Then General Rios made his star play. He told us that 
the natives of Mindanao had many curious weapons, 
spears and knives and old guns and curiously wrought 
shields of hide and armour made of hard wood and hides, 
and that undoubtedly we would be pleased to accumulate 
specimens of these weapons and take them back to Amer- 
ica with us as mementos of our visit to this curious and 
half-civilised island. The matter-of-fact Anglo-Saxon 
speech completely failed to convey adequately our expres- 
sions of gratification at this suggestion of the General, 
and we were compelled to leave it to the flowery eloquence 
of our Spanish interpreter. I don^t know what he said, 
but he was a long time about it and apparently it was very 
successful, for his Excellency bowed and smiled and said 
muclias graciaos and there he was thanking us apparently 
for being willing to go down to the rascally old island that 
the Spanish have never been able to conquer completely. 

We rose to go and everybody bowed and smiled. The 
General said that we should take no thought whatever 
about our transportation to Mindanao ; that whenever a 
steamer was going he would notify us, that we would have 



286 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

ample time to go aboard. Wily old General Rios ! He 
knew all the time, what we didn't find out for several 
days, that he had impressed every Spanish steamer in the 
islands for the transportation of troops from one place to 
another, as the exigencies of his campaign against the in- 
surgents required, and that there was no probability of a 
steamer going to Mindanao for a month. He knew also 
that the trip from Iligan to the lake is made only once a 
week by a Spanish guard and that never a guard goes up 
that is not attacked by the Morros, and that if we should 
undertake to make the journey with the guard there was 
a first-class chance of our never getting back to America. 
But he is very polite. General Eios, and an extremely 
pleasant person to meet. 

As I have said, the Englishmen were very glad to see 
us. They had waited a long time to see the Americans 
and they had been very hopeful of seeing some warships 
flying the Stars and Stripes. They are in a very ticklish 
position. All of them are either in business for themselves 
in the Visayas or represent firms, w^hich have large in- 
terests there. A great deal of English capital is invested 
in the hemp and sugar business in those provinces, and 
just now it is in a very precarious condition. Thousands 
of dollars have been advanced on the crops to the native 
planters. If the insurrection envelops those islands that 
money will be lost. There will be no sugar crop. Hemp 
stripping will cease. The planters will have nothing with 
which to meet their obligations and the English loss will 
be very severe. The Visayas are on the lid of a kettle 
which is simmering over the fire of revolution. The na- 
tives are naturally more peaceful and less inclined to rev- 
olution than their hardier fellows of Luzon and the 
northern islands, but they have been greatly excited by 
the success of the Tagals and they have been stirred up 
by the advent of the Americans in the Philippines until 
they have reached the point where they Avill no longer 
submit to Spanish domination. 

Spain is done as far as the Philippines are concerned. 
She never again can control these islands. She might be able 
to maintain widely separated posts, but it is just as 
certain as that the sun shines and the rain falls upon 
these green-clad hills that that is all she could do. 
She QQuld maintain these posts, but there would be no 



ILOILO 287 

business done. The native population would engage 
in a war which would never end. The Visayas and 
Tagals alike would fight Spain forever. The patience of 
these people and their persistency in such a purpose when 
it is once formed are amazing. Men who have spent 
twenty or twenty-five years among them and know them 
thoroughly are unanimous in saying that the attempt of 
Spain to restore peace and to maintain quiet in these 
islands would fail utterly. It would result only in the 
destruction of all business enterprises and the reversion 
of the island to a condition of practical savagery. The 
natives would cease to raise articles of commerce and 
would devote themselves to war. 

On the other hand, the natives stand waiting for the 
Americans with outstretched hands. They do not know 
the Americans personally. They ask the Englishmen who 
are engaged in business throughout the southern islands, 
not only what we are, but also what we look like. The 
Englishmen assure them that the Americans are just the 
same in appearance and in purpose as themselves. The 
natives understand something of what the Americans 
stand for in the way of liberty in general and personal 
freedom, and they recognise that under American pro- 
tection or under American government lies the possibility 
of the largest attainment of their own dearest ambitions. 
So they stand waiting to see what we are going to do. If 
it turns out that we are to keep these islands, we shall 
have no trouble whatever in the south. They will receive 
us gladly, quietly, peacefully. But if it turns out that 
we go away, there remains for the Visayas only a prospect 
of fire and blood and utter devastation. 

It has been said repeatedly, and the story has had 
great credence here, and has been largely circulated from 
here, that Aguinaldo has small influence with the people 
of the Visayas and the south. It has been a common as- 
sertion that there is great division among the natives them- 
selves, great suspicion of Aguinaldo and his motives, and 
that there certainly will be factional strife among the in- 
surgents should Aguinaldo ultimatel}^ attain the success 
for which he is striving. I found none of this in the 
Visayas. The leading men of Panay, ISTegros, Samar, 
Cebu, Leyte and Masbate say that Aguinaldo is regarded 
v/ith the highest esteem tliroughout the Visayas. He is 



288 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

the idol of tlie people there, because he stands for all that 
they most dearly desire, and they will follow him even 
more blindly than his own Tagalogs, among whom there 
is, in truth, a great deal of division. This is undoubtedly 
the actual situation in the south. 

There was a time when nearly all the business of the 
Philippine Islands was in the hands of the Americans. 
The great firms of Eussel & Co., Peele, Hubbell & Co., 
and Warner, Blodgett & Co., handled nearly all the hemp 
and sugar produced in these islands, but one of the most 
salient characteristics of the American business man 
operated to change all that. The irresistible temptation 
to speculate ultimately brought these great firms to their 
downfall. They shipped great cargoes of hemp and sugar 
away from Manila and Iloilo unsold, and they lost thou- 
sands and thousands of dollars by it. Their trade went over 
to the more conservative English houses, and now many an 
Englishman who began business out here in the employ of 
Americans is at the head of a British firm. It is, of course, 
possible, for the Americans under American control of 
these islands to regain a great measure of their commer- 
cial importance, if not their old supremacy, but they must 
do it on conservative lines. 

One thing more, one of the most delightful things 
which came under my observation in Iloilo. It was a 
single action of Mr. Duncan, the Yice-Consul, and was an 
illustration of a British characteristic which is one of the 
things that make British supremacy so sure and certain 
throughout the world. The British gunboat Eattler came 
into Iloilo while we were there and a lot of the crew got 
shore liberty. Shore liberty for the Anglo-Saxon sailorman 
the world over means that he is going to get drunk and 
have his fling. That's what he goes ashore for ; that^'s what 
is expected by his officers. It gives him a chance to let off 
steam after three months' bottling up on the ship. The 
Rattler's jackies came up to Iloilo, went to the solitary 
cafe in the place, had several drinks and ordered a meal. 
It took a long time to prepare the meal, and they sat 
around waiting for it and having other drinks. Some of 
them went to sleep. It happened that this cafe was very 
much frequented by Spanish officers, and in the course of 
the afternoon, as they began to drop in, they found the 
place practically pre-empted by the British sailormen. 



THE M'CULLOCH'S FAREWELL 289 

They were angry and objected. They wanted the pro- 
prietor to throw ont the jackies. The proprietor was will- 
ing to oblige them, but he couldn't do it ; the jackies 
wouldn^t go. They had contracted for a meal, and they 
meant to have it. It was a public restaurant, and they 
couldn^t be put out oS-hand that way. Finally the Span- 
iards appealed to Torrealto, the Governor of the province 
of Iloilo. He came around with his gold-braided uniform 
and his gold-headed cane and ordered the British tars to 
get out. There was a row in a second, in the course of 
which one British sailorman heaved a chair at the head of 
the Governor, the result of which was that the Spaniards 
cleared out and the British sailormen stayed there and had 
their meal and went away when they got blessed well ready. 

That night I met Mr. Duncan on his return from a 
snipe-shooting trip. I had heard only a rumour of the 
fracas in the cafe, and I wanted to get the details, which, 
I supposed, of course, Mr. Duncan would know. So I 
asked him. 

" I don^t know what it was,^' he said. '' Our fellows 
haven^t been ashore for three months. Of course they 
had some fun. They're entitled to it. Heaved a chair 
at the Governor's head, did he ? Hum, he's all right." 

That was lovely, and my admiration for Mr. Duncan 
increased amazingly. 



CHAPTEE XLIl 

THE Mcculloch's faeetvell 

Maxila, Nov. 16. — All this morning there floated from 
the main truck of the McCulloch a long red, white and blue 
pennant. It streamed far out over the taffrail, and oc- 
casionally, as the breeze died down, it drooped until the 
gilded float at the tip of it touched the sparkling blue water 
of the bay. It was more than 200 feet long. For twenty 
feet or more from where it swung on the halyard its blue 
field was spotted with a double row of white stars. It was 
fair and bright and new, and it proclaimed to the great grey 
ships lying about Cavite and in front of Manila, and to all 
the world who saw, that the trim little ship from whose 
masthead it floated was '^homeward bound." Homeward 
bound ! Oh, lucky dogs, you chaps who live aboard her ! 



290 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Well, we'll give yon a cheer and a godspeed when yon start 
and a hearty, earnest wish for a fine voyage. 

Of conrse the men on the other ships had known for 
several days that the McCulloch was going. The officers 
and men had been making up little boxes of sonvenirs and 
relics to send home by her. It always happens when a 
ship leaves a foreign station for home. But there was 
something more than this charm in the departure of the 
handsome little revenue cutter. For six months or more 
she had been a ship of the navy. She had borne her part 
on the glorious 1st of May, and she had done her work in 
the long anxious watch that followed. She had had her 
share in the final achievement, the capture of Manila, and 
now the navy had returned her to the Treasury Depart- 
ment, from which she had been borrowed, and she was 
starting on the final stretch of the long journey from Balti- 
more to her regular station at San Francisco, which the 
war had interrupted so violently. She was the first ship 
of the little squadron that dealt Spain such a terrific blow 
in Manila Bay to start back to God^s country, and there 
was a sentiment about the parting with her that made those 
who stayed behind surprisingly active with their handker- 
chiefs. 

Twelve o'clock was the appointed time for sailing, but 
there were two friends of Captain Hooper who had had no 
chance to bid him good-bye, and he waited nearly two 
hours, so that they might have opportunity for a last brief 
visit. One of them had come out from Baltimore in the 
ship, and it gave him a hard wrench to see her go away. 
It was a little before 2 o'clock when the final preparations 
were made. The little ship was very trim and pretty. In 
a fresh coat of paint, as clean and fine as care and work 
could get her, she was ready to make her final bow to her 
big bluff comrades of the sharp fight and long vigil. All 
hands were in their newest, cleanest white and their hap- 
piest smiles, and they leaped forward with a will at the 
command " Stand by the port anchor." On the other 
ships the lookouts had been watching the McCulloch for 
two hours, and every ten minutes or so responding to the 
question of the officer of the deck, " Not under way yet, 
sir." But at last the answer changed. 

'^ The McCulloch is under way, sir," was the hail of the 
lookouts, and '' Stand by to lay up," shouted the deck 



THE M'CULLOCH'S FAREWELL 29I 

officers. The white-clad sailornien on the other ships — 
big, clean, hearty fellows, whom it warms your heart to 
see — tumbled along their decks to their places abreast of 
the rigging, and stood in groups eagerly watching the 
handsome little cutter as slowly and gracefully she began 
her Admirars sweep. Throughout the squadron it was 
*' All hands to cheer ship/' and all hands were ready. As 
the McCulloch left her anchorage and got way on, the 
long, homevrard-bound pennant streamed far out astern, 
the gilded ball at its tip dancing up and down in the shift- 
ing air currents. She swung slowly to port and passed 
outside the monitor Monterey. Her forecastle deck was 
white with the spick-and-span uniforms of her crew. Her 
officers were gathered on the bridge and on the high poop 
deck, and over her taffrail floated the biggest and bright- 
est Star-Spangled Banner that ever graced her flag locker. 
As she passed the Monterey, we who were watching from 
the Baltimore saw the wild waving of hats on the monitor 
and then the frantic gesticulation on the cutter. Then 
there floated across the bay the roar of cheers. You will 
never hear men cheer until you hear our sailormen when 
the battle-flags are broken out for action : but they sent up 
a roaring godspeed this afternoon to their fellows home- 
ward bound that somehow clutched the heart and brought 
a lump into the throat and made one remember what that 
fine old American wrote for his English friends : 

The bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring. 

On past the Monterey and her cheering jackies, and 
down by the Monadnock, slowly steamed the McCulloch. 
There again the men shouted out their feelings with full- 
throated emphasis, and the sound of it drifted across to the 
Baltimore in a confused roar. Then the handsome pick- 
aninny of Admiral Dewey's triumphant squadron swung 
and came by the Baltimore. The band on the cruiser had 
taken station on the poop deck. As the cutter stood down 
toward the cruiser, her flags standing straight out in the 
freshening breeze, with a fine roll of foam curling away from 
her sharp cutwater, she was very proud and handsome. 
The afternoon was fine and clear. The little waves of the 
bay sparkled and glistened in the bright sunshine. Behind 
the shijis, across the low green fringe along the shore, the 
tall blue hills stood out sharp and distinct in the background. 



292 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

" Lay aloft ! " shouted the officer of the deck on the 
Baltimore, and up the rigging swarmed the agile sailor- 
men. The cutter^s crew followed the action and raced 
aloft. Then, as she drew nearer, to pass under the big 
ship's stern, the Baltimore's officer shouted, ^'^Now, all 
together ! " and the cruiser's men sent the cutter's crew a 
cheer that will be echoing in their hearts long after they 
have reached their homes and greeted their old friends in 
God's country. The answering roar from the McOulloch's 
decks and rigging had hardly died away when the Balti- 
more's band began, and the tune they played was : 

Should auld acquaintance be forgot ? 

In perfect silence the two crews listened to the music. 
The cutter swept swiftly under the cruiser's stern, and the 
band swung into *^The Girl I Left Behind Me." Some- 
how the wild exuberance of the men who had been yelling 
the membranes out of their throats but a moment before 
was all gone. Perhaps they were seeing the pictures of 
the home land, 8,000 miles away. The homeward-bound 
pennant flew far out behind the cutter, but the gilded 
float at its tip, caught in the draught behind the ship, 
darted forward, as if hurrying to reach the goal, and car- 
ried the end of the pennant ahead in a broad, graceful loop. 
The officers of the cruiser and the cutter gravely saluted, 
and then the Baltimore's band broke into a lively quickstep. 

''We're sorry to part," the music had said, ^'andwe 
hope you'll not forget. We're glad you're going home to 
your loved ones, and we wish you a fast, safe, and pleasant 
voyage." 

Around the Baltimore and on to the flagship went the 
McCulloch. The Olympia's men flocked on the super- 
structure, crowded the turret tops, and swarmed aloft. 
One big fellow lay out on the end of the main gafl and fran- 
tically waved his hat as he cheered. The flagship's band 
had gone ashore, so there was no music there for the home- 
ward bound, but the cheers seemed to have added strength. 
Then across the bay to where the Ealeigh was standing 
guard off Manila steamed the happy cutter, and there 
again the farewell shouts were repeated. Then, with her 
flag and pennant proudly standing out in the breeze, the 
McCulloch turned her bow toward the Boca Grande, and 
the long homeward journey was begun. 



HIT-AND-MISS MAILS 293 

Happy ship, fortunate men, who have endured life and 
braved death for the honour and the glory of the flag you 
loved and served so well. What joys await you in your own 
land when freedom's soil shall indeed be beneath your feet, 
as freedom's banner now streams o'er you ! May you all 
be there at the last to know and enjoy to the full ! 



CHAPTER XLIII 

HIT-Ai;rD-MISS MAILS 

Manila, Nov. 29. — Occasionally the kindly fate which 
watches over the lives and fortunes of Uncle Sam's soldiers 
and sailors intervenes with the mail destroyers of the pos- 
tal service and a few sacks of letters get through. On be- 
half of about 18,000 men in the land and naval service of 
the United States remarks have been made about this sub- 
ject before, sometimes by cable, but they have had no ap- 
parent result. The arrival of the new batch of transports 
brings the subject up afresh just now, because there is a 
new instance of the apparent disregard of the feelings of 
the men out here with which postal affairs are handled at 
home. Probably there is no use in trying to make the 
'* sheltered people '' understand how eagerly the men await 
their mail, with what joy and pleasure they get their let- 
ters, or how terrific is the blow when they get none. 

Just yesterday afternoon I was talking about the mail 
with a man who has been in the hospital for sixty days 
with typhoid fever, and he told me the story of a man who 
died in the cot next his own. The poor fellow held out 
well until the mail came in. He was longing with all the 
intensity of his fever-racked soul for letters from home. 
When the mail finally was delivered nearly every man about 
him got letters, but this chap had none. It fairly broke 
him down. Half the night he lay face down on his cot 
and cried like a child. And after that it seemed as if his 
grit was gone. His will to get well was broken. He just 
didn't care to live, that was all, and he didn't live. 

When mail comes so far and is so long in coming its 
value to the recipients increases in geometrical ratio with 
the miles travelled. When mails come so infrequently it is 
a knock-down blow to get the postmaster's negative shake 



294 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

of the head, and I have seen big husky fellows wlio would 
go forward cheering under fire fairly stagger away from 
the general delivery window. Perhaps the people at home 
do not write. It is a beautiful demonstration of the worth 
of friendship to put it to that test. Even kinsmen grow 
careless. Those things have to be borne as best they may. 

To go back to the beginning. Nearly all the ships of the 
Ahierican lines running out of San Francisco were taken 
by the Government for transports. Thereupon the Post- 
office Department declared that its mail service was broken 
up. The War Department jumped into the muddle and 
ordered the mail sent forward by transports. There was 
a line of express steamers running from Victoria to Hoiig 
Kong which made the trip in three weeks with the regu- 
larity of Jersey City ferries, and which was not in the 
least disturbed by the w^ar or the transport service. But 
this was a foreign line and could be utilised only in emer- 
gencies. There was no hesitation about using the foreign- 
owned line of ships that ran from San Francisco to Hong 
Kong. But these ships take from twenty-eight to thirty- 
one days for the trip the others make in twenty. If every 
bit of the mail had been held for Victoria express steamers, 
no doubt it would have reached here. Often it might have 
got here had it been dispatched by another route, but 
there would have been this tremendous advantage, that 
the service would have been regular and to be relied upon, 
whereas as it was nothing was to be depended on. It was 
hit and miss, take your chance and trust in Providence. 

That, however, is, after all, only one phase of the ar- 
rangement. It was when the determination to forward 
mail by transports was put into effect that the bright and 
shining light of some overmastering intellect began to 
dazzle the Western world. There was the case of the 
Morgan City. Many on the east coast know the Morgan 
City. She is the old craft that was fitted up for the Klon- 
dike trade, and when she left New York last December all 
South Street made pools on the point of her collapse. 
Well, she got around to 'Frisco, after being reported as 
repairing on the way, and was sent out with troops and 
mail. Of course they put the mail on her. There wasn't 
another thing so slow on the Pacific Ocean, and it was too 
good a chance to lose. Two days after she left San Fran- 
cisco the Newport sailed with General Merritt and his 



CASH WE FOUND 295 

staff, bound through in the shortest possible time. In 
Honohilu the Newport had a chance to take the mail from 
the Morgan City, but the Newport's people said: "^^She 
left before we did. She hasn't any mail for us." So the 
Newport came along, and five days after she reached 
Cavite the Morgan City came in. 

On August 20 the Arizona left 'Frisco. On August 27 
the Scandia followed, with the accumulated mail of the 
Aveek. In Honolulu they met, and the Arizona came on 
as fast as she could, but do you suppose she brought the 
Scandia's mail ? Not the Arizona ! The Belgic, which 
left 'Frisco on September 3, reached Honolulu before the 
Arizona left, and placidly kept on to Hong Kong with her 
week's mail. The skipper of the Arizona couldn't be 
bothered with it. The Arizona went back to Honolulu 
from here for troops and stores. When she left Honolulu 
to come back here the Indiana, Ohio, and Zealandia trans- 
ports, and Doric, liner, lay in the harbour there, all with 
mail. The Arizona is the fastest of all these ships, and 
she was coming through at top speed. The Indiana had 
the mail from October 20th to the 27th, the day on which 
she left 'Frisco. The Ohio started from 'Frisco the next 
day with one day's mail. The Zealandia left on the 29th 
with one day's mail, and the Doric on the 30th with another 
day's mail. With this nine days' mail lying there in Hon- 
olulu, the Arizona steamed out and hustled across to 
Manila in fourteen days and never brought a letter or a 
paper. Since then the Ohio has come in with her one 
day's mail, and the Indiana with her batch is somewhere 
on the Pacific. The Doric's mail will come down from 
Hong Kong some time by and by, and we hope the Zea- 
landia will get in safely. 



CHAPTER XLIV 

CASH WE FOUND 

Manila, Dec. 23. — When Major Kilbourne, the custo- 
dian of public funds of General Otis's Government of the 
patch of the Philippines ruled by the United States, shut 
up his ofiice this afternoon and started for his drive on 
Maiecon and the Luneta, the books he locked up behind 



296 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

him showed that since the Americans began to do busi- 
ness in the old building where the Spaniards ran a lottery 
they have taken in the rather comfortable sum of 
$2,929,396.97. Of course that is silver, and has to be 
divided by two to show the amount of human money re- 
ceived, but three millions even of ^dobe dollars would make 
a pretty effective wolf fence. This includes, however, the 
$890,144.25 which was seized in the Treasury and the Mint, 
and has remained sealed up ever since, waiting the deter- 
mination of the fate of the Philippines. That leaves a 
little over $2,000,000 as the receipts of about four months, 
or a trifle over $500,000 a month. In the same time the 
expenditures have been only $1,172,667.44. Even in the 
circumscribed condition of affairs at present this shows 
a surplus of over $216,000 a month. General Otis's ad- 
ministration is making and saving money. Of course that 
does not include the enormous expenses of the army, but 
in figuring on what the country can do just now it is hardly 
proper to count such military expenses. 

When Manila surrendered, Lieutenant-Colonel Potter and 
Majors Keleher and Kilbourne were detailed to take over the 
Spanish Treasury and Mint. Major Whipple was appointed 
custodian of public funds. That was when General 
Greene, as Intendente- General de Hacienda, had charge of 
all fiscal affairs. The first business of the three Ameri- 
cans was to get into the Treasury and the Mint and find 
what was there. The Treasury building is very near the 
Ayuntamiento, or headquarters building, and is rather an 
imposing structure. It is built of stone, and is of massive 
heavy architecture. On the ground floor there are the 
Treasury vaults and a few offices. The second floor is 
given up to offices and to the lottery, which was one 
of the mainstays of the Philippine finance. This lottery, 
by the way, cut both ways. In the last drawing before the 
battle of Manila Bay ten of the sailor men of the Concord 
bought $1 tickets. Seven of them got one-tenth tickets 
of the same number, and that number drew a $10,000 
prize. When the first man asked Commander Walker for 
leave to go ashore to collect his $1,000 the skipper granted 
it, but by the time the fourth man got along he was very 
suspicious. However, the jackies all got ashore and all 
got their money, and there was a high old time in Hong 
Kong that night. 



CASH WE FOUND 29/ 

Everything about the Treasury building was locked up, 
and the first difficulty the Americans had was in getting 
the doors open. The Spanish system made three men 
responsible. No one of them trusted the other two — in 
fact, the law did not permit him to do so. Therefore, 
everything that was locked bore three locks, each different 
from the others. Each official carried a key which would 
open one lock, and the whole three had to be present 
whenever anything that had been fastened up was to be 
opened. The three Spanish officials were the Treasurer 
and his two chief assistants. They were notified by the 
Americans to be present at the Treasury building very 
early in the week after the surrender, but at the appointed 
time they were not on hand. For a few days after that it 
was a game of hide and seek — some of the Spaniards would 
come, but the others would not. Then when finally all 
were present some of the keys had been left behind. At 
last threats of arrest brought the reluctant officials to 
terms, and they all went to the Treasury together, each 
with his keys. Everything was locked up. Even the big, 
wood-covered water tanks in the courtyard were fastened 
with three big padlocks. 

The Americans proceeded with the utmost care. The 
Spaniards had protested vehemently against the seizure 
of the Treasury and had renewed the protest with added 
vigour when they learned that the peace protocol had been 
signed before they surrendered. So the Spanish officials 
were required to witness everything the Americans did. 
After they had opened the vaults and the rooms where 
stocks or securities or other valuables were kept, they 
were required to stay and watch the count. They didn't 
like it a bit, but that didn't bother the Americans, who 
worked away at the count. It didn't take very long to 
count the gold in the Spanish Treasury. All told it was 
only 14,200, and that on a silver basis, so there was only 
$2,100 of gold. But there Avas about $130,000 in silver 
coin of several brands, all 'dobe, and that was a more 
tedious business. Then there were bank-notes and checks 
and bonds and such things, and about 2,000 sacks of cop- 
per coin, so that, altogether, it was a job of several days 
to make the count. 

Whenever the count was suspended there was a per- 
formance the like of which the Spaniards were not aeons- 



298 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

tomed to see. Not only was everything locked up — it was 
sealed. And not only did the Americans seal against the 
Spaniards but they required the Spaniards to seal against 
them. The Spaniards regarded all that as just so much 
flummery, done for show and subserving no legitimate 
purpose whatever. They did their part in the sealing 
more and more languidly, and at last forgot their seals. 
Major Kilbourne supplied the deficiency. He used his 
own ring for the Spanish seal and then gave it to one of 
the Spaniards to keep until the whole party met again to 
go on with the work. Afterward that was done regularly 
until the count was finished. 

It took several days to complete the count. As each 
vault or compartment was examined and the money or 
securities counted or listed a statement of the contents 
was made out, which the three Spanish officials were re- 
quired to sign. This was kept by the Americans, who 
gave the Spaniards a receipt setting forth the items thus 
seized. The valuables were kept in several places about 
the treasury. There were some compartments which were 
not pointed out by the Spanish officials and which were 
discovered by the Americans only after some time had 
elapsed. In all such cases General Otis appointed a board 
of officers to examine the property found, count or list it, 
and make return to the custodian of public funds. There 
is one compartment which the Americans have not ex- 
amined yet, because the keys have not been forthcoming, 
and until the matter of ultimate control of Philippine 
finance is decided they are averse to breaking it open. It 
has been sealed up. The Spanish officials who say they 
haven't the keys, also say there is nothing in this com- 
partment. 

At the Mint there was no difficulty whatever in making 
the count. There, as at the Treasury, there was the three- 
key system, but the superintendent had collected the keys 
from the officials and there was no delay. The superin- 
tendent turned over the keys to the Americans, witnessed 
the count, saw everything sealed up, took his receipts, 
signed the statement for the Americans, and went home 
to wait in peace for the ship to come along to take him 
back to Spain. 

There were also separate funds found in the safes in 
the Ayuntamiento, or headquarters building, and in the 



CASH WE FOUND 299 

office of the Civil Governor. These also were counted 
and sealed up, and guards were stationed at the Mint and 
Treasury. This is the itemized statement of the seized 
fund, as taken from the various safes. Since then some 
other items have been found which increase it a little : 

SPANISH GENERAL TREASURY. 

Gold coin $4,200 00 

Silver coin (Mexican and Filipino mixed) 129,632 21 

Notes of the Banco Espanol-FiHpino 194,180 00 

One accepted check on Banco Espanol-FiUpino 160,205 50 

One accepted check on Banco Espaiiol-Filipino 10,000 00 

162 sacks copper coin said to contain $50 each 8,100 00 

1,928 boxes copper coin said to contain $150 each. . . 289,200 00 

Total $795,517 71 

SPANISH IVHNT. 

30 sacks Mexican dollars, $1,000 each , $30,000 00 

29 sacks Spanish medio pesos, $1,000 each 29,000 00 

10 packages Spanish medio pesos, in wooden boxes . . 50 00 

Total $59,050 00 

One bar gold, 870 fine, weight 6810 grammes, and 
one bar gold, 999 fine, weight 313 grammes, all of 
the estimated value of 3,806 08 

Total $62,856 08 

FUNDS OF THE AYUNTAMIENTO. 

Notes Banco Espanol-Filipino, copper and silver 
coin $3,624 82 

" FONDES LOCALES," OFFICE OF " GOBERNADOR CIVIL." 

Notes Banco Espanol-Filipino and coin $956 02 

FUNDS OF THE PHILIPPINE LANCERS, THIRTY-FIRST REGIMENT 

CAVALRY. 

Copper coin $950 00 

Making the grand total as indicated above of . .. $863,904 63 

There is to be added first $26,049.62 which was found 
on deposit in the Banco Espaflol-Filipino and which was 
left there. Also there are some securities which may be 
good and may not, depending in large measure on the 
fate of the islands. For instance, there was an iron con- 
trivance in the Treasury building which was known as a 
'' reserve safe." In this safe was a box of provisional 
bonds, issued by the Philippine Government to meet certain 
provisional expenses. Probably these expenses were con- 
nected with the '96 revolution, though there was nothing 



300 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

to show definitely what they were for. Neither was there 
anything to show whether they were valid. There was 
$14,000,000 worth of them, and to all appearances they 
were perfectly good. There was nothing to show whether 
they had been issued or not. In another reserve safe there 
were $1,000 in bank-notes, a certified check that had never 
been cashed, $700,000 in bonds apparently good, and some 
Treasury notes, worthless or not, according as we deter- 
mine. In still another place the Americans found this 
list of things : 

Silver coin and bank-notes $6,950 63 

One certified check 671 00 

Two drafts on a Barcelona bank, non-negotiable 24,243 14 

16 packages Treasury bills 70,098 00 

1 package bonds Banco Espanol-Filipino tJl,800 00 

Deposit warrants, not indorsed, and so worthless 18,719 91 

Stock Banco Espanol-Filipino, apparently good 18,800 00 

All these things are specified in detail in the treasury 
manifest, if it may be called that, of the seized fund, and 
receipts for them have been given to the Spanish officials. 
Also the Americans receipted for one box of Fire Depart- 
ment medals, one carriage, two horses, one set of harness, 
two halters, one stable bucket, one curry comb and one 
brush. 

In all this there is a first-class opportunity for some per- 
sons to make trouble for some American officials by and 
by, and to cause a lot of worriment and perplexity. Every- 
thing the Americans seized from the Spaniards is sealed 
up all right and ready to be returned exactly as it was 
when seized — except, perhaps, the horses, carriage and 
currycomb and brush — in case that is the decision. But 
suppose we keep the islands. Are we going to take over 
the treasury responsibilities along with them ? If we do 
we are in for some fun. The Spanish records, as far as the 
Americans have been able to discover in a search of sev- 
eral months, were all of one kind. They kept track of 
receipts in fine shape. Apparently no detail was too 
small to be recorded when it concerned money coming in 
to the Government, although there is nothing to show that 
the numerous entries of receipts are accurate or trust- 
worthy, and there are many facts which tend to throw 
suspicion on them. And so far not a single record of dis- 
bursemejits qI any sort has come to light. There are 



CASH WE FOUND 3OI 

books and books of deposits, but not a scrap or leaf to show 
what became of a cent. 

Also there are records which show that the general treasury 
received trust deposits. There are records of many such 
deposits, but nothing to show that the funds or securities 
so deposited have ever been withdrawn. By and by, when 
we have set up business for good in this old treasury, some 
chap may come along and demand a million or two, alleg- 
ing that he had deposited it with the Government for safe- 
keeping. Some fellow will want some of those bonds or 
treasury bills or other things whose value depends simply 
on whether they had been issued or not. There isn^t a 
record so far found that will solve this problem, and the 
search has been very thorough. 

It seems impossible to credit a Spanish official with any 
sort of honesty. Our own men down here always 
seem surprised when they find that one has told the 
truth, even though it concerns only a minor matter. Sim- 
ilarly, or is it dissimilarly, they are not surprised at any 
sort of deception or dishonesty. It will be noticed that 
the list of seized funds shoAvs about 2,100 boxes and sacks 
of copper coin, containing about S300,000. This was all 
in one and two-cent pieces. The sacks and boxes made a 
huge pile in one end of one of the largest rooms in the 
treasury building. It puzzled the Americans for a long 
time, the finding of this relatively enormous amount of 
copper, with so little silver and paper. There is a scarcity 
of copper in the city and surrounding country. The 
needs of business demand a much larger stock than there 
is. Several years ago there was plenty of copper, but now 
most of it has disappeared, and one frequently finds in 
Manila and nearly always in the neighbouring villages that 
the Filipinos are using the old cuarto pieces, which were 
discarded when the new coinage came in. These cuartos 
have the advantage that any chunk of copper of about 
their weight will be accepted as a cuarto without much 
question as to whether it has ever been minted. Finally, 
however, the mystery of the $300,000 in copper was ex- 
plained. It seems that a few years ago there was a defal- 
cation in the Treasury. The Treasurer himself got the 
credit of getting the money. Maybe so, maybe not so, as 
old Yarmouni said. But whether he profited alone or 
divided, the Treasury lost 81,300,000, and it is carried on the 



302 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

books to this day as an asset, ^^Defalcation, $1,300,000." 
It was to cover up this defalcation that this copper was 
withdrawn from circulation and sacked up. Each sack 
of copper simply took the place of a sack of silver. The 
pile did not appear to have been changed, and it was not 
until some time after the theft that an unusually cautious 
official took the trouble to examine one of the sacks and 
discovered the fraud. Besides this defalcation the books 
show another of $4,500. That fellow must have had few 
friends or have been exceedingly unskilful, for apparently 
he was found out very early in the game. 

In the lot of coin seized at the mint there was a large 
quantity of silver that had been damaged by fire. Several 
years ago a ship came into the bay with a lot of Mexican 
dollars aboard. Mexicans were contraband under the 
Spanish rule, but smugglers used to get them in sometimes. 
This ship took fire and was destroyed, but before she was 
burned up she had beeij hauled into the river where the 
Fire Department could work at her. When the wreck was 
examined the Mexicans were discovered. Promptly the 
Spaniards seized them and as promptly the owners got 
into the courts with the contention that they had had no 
intention of trying to smuggle the Mexicans into Manila ; 
they were simply taking the silver to Chinese ports where 
it would pass. In the courts the matter has been ever 
since, and now who is to decide it ? 

The various offices in the treasury building presented 
a curious spectacle to the Americans when they first 
took the place. Eoom after room was all confusion. The 
most skilful spoilsmen our style of politics ever produced 
would turn green with envy at a glimpse of the Spanish 
placemaker. These treasury rooms were filled with long 
rows of desks, each with places for four clerks. There 
must have been nearly 150 of these clerks. Each one had 
kept his own records. Those of receipts and deposits 
were kept in books, all properly labelled. Besides these 
there were rows of racks along the walls, all filled with 
sheets of paper tied up in bundles. On these sheets 
various records had been kept, but as far as yet discovered 
they were not records of disbursements. When the Amer- 
icans entered the building they found these record books 
and bundles of leaves strewn about the desks and tables 
and thrown promiscuously about the floor. They lay in 



CASH WE FOUND 303 

heaps or singly and some of the bundles looked as if they 
had been opened very hurriedly and some of the leaves 
taken away. Whatever order there may have been in the 
arrangement of the books and bundles in the racks along 
the walls had been destroyed completely, and now it will 
be a herculean task to get the records into anything like 
intelligible shape. 

One book was found, however, which showed a state of 
affairs which is likely to interest a good many persons 
by and by, including the Americans who have to try to 
straighten out the mess. 

It is a book showing deposits, of which there were sev- 
eral kinds. There were two general classes of deposits, 
^^ necessary" and '^^ voluntary. "" The ^^ necessary" were 
deposits made in the nature of bonds, to secure perform- 
ance of contracts or faithful service in office, or some such 
thing. They were also made by the holders of all licenses 
of whatever character, butchers, venders, theatrical, liquor, 
and so on. They were in ^^ money," meaning bank-notes, 
or in " metal," meaning probably gold. The voluntary 
deposits were of two classes, interest and non-interest 
bearing. In some cases, apparently, the Treasury did a 
sort of banking business, by allowing interest on time de- 
posits as our own banks do. Most of these deposits, how- 
ever, as far as one can determine from the books left 
behind, were made simply for safe keeping, and the Treas- 
ury bills and bonds and stock of the Filipino bank found 
in the reserve safes were probably of this class. The cer- 
tified checks may have come under the deposito necesario 
class, but there was no way by which the Americans 
could distinguish the classes of deposits. 

This book of deposits contains entries made on August 
12, the day before the city surrendered, showing that to 
the very last the Spaniards kept open for business at the 
old stand. It also shows that the total of deposits which 
ought to be on hand in the vaults and safes was something 
over $3,000,000. Yet the seized fund is less than $900,- 
000. What became of the difference nothing has been 
discovered yet to show. If the missing funds were trust 
funds, or voluntary deposits, how much responsibility 
attaches to the American successors to the Spanish thieves 
in the matter of the distribution of the little there is 
left ? It will be a pretty problem for some one by and by. 



304 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Under the American regime things rnn a little differ- 
ently. There are only four sources of revenue, the cus- 
toms, internal revenue, fees of the office of the Captain of 
the Port and fees collected by the Provost Marshal-G-en- 
eral. The main source of course, is the customs. As 
yet the Custom House is not conducted on a satisfactory 
basis. There has been a lot of difficulty in adjusting the 
new American tariff. The Americans were ignorant of 
the old Spanish methods of administration and of the law, 
and the outgoing Spaniards left practically no records 
which were of any appreciable service to the Americans. 
Smuggling goes on constantly, both by importers and ex- 
porters, and there has been a good deal of stealing of 
goods between the ship and the Custom House. Recent 
arrangements, however, have been made, by which Gen- 
eral Otis hopes to have matters put on a much more satis- 
factory basis. He has been much displeased by the de- 
fects in the customs administration. 

The Administration at Washington has not seen fit to 
send customs experts to Manila, and the result is that the 
collection is in the hands of soldiers, nearly every one 
of whom is entirely inexperienced in the work. One man 
who has been in the customs service a good many years 
came out, but he was not made collector and did not 
have much authority. It is not at all certain that he could 
have made things run smoothly under the circumstances 
even if he had had full swing. It is probably due to the 
inexperience and consequent inefficiency of the men in the 
customs office that so many irregularities go on and that 
there is so much smuggling. The merchants of Manila 
have come to regard the matter as something of a joke. 
One of them told Tlie Sun correspondent this story the 
other day and laughed at the easy way in which he had 
got around the customs officers. He had six cascos of 
tobacco to ship, and the steamer's agent notified him to 
have it alongside the steamer by 3 o'clock in the afternoon. 
He sent to the Custom House to have an appraiser inspect 
it in the cascos and fix the duty. The appraiser was busy 
or away on a visit and couldn't come. So the shipper sent 
the cascos to the steamer and loaded the tobacco aboard. 
In the afternoon the appraiser came, but the tobacco was 
gone. Apparently the appraiser made no report to the 
collector, for that was the end of the business. Now, 



CASH WE FOUND 305 

says the shipper, he sends one casco to the Custom House 
and pays the duty on it, and all the rest he sends to the 
ship. Importers simply reverse this process. The Chi- 
nese are especially wily, and there have been many reports 
that bribery of the soldier customs men were going on. 
So far no man has been caught taking a bribe. General 
Otis has been watching this reported funny business very 
sharply. It won^'t be pleasant for any man who is caught. 
Next to the customs as a source of revenue comes the 
internal revenue and then the Provost Marshal- GeneraFs 
office. To the internal revenue collector under the Span- 
ish regime every industry paid a tax, every merchant paid 
for the privilege of doing business. The law hovered 
about everything that was worth having and made the 
chap who got the cockfighting monopoly whack up hand- 
somely. In return he got the exclusive privilege of run- 
ning the public cockpits, just as the opium contractor got 
the sole right to sell opium. These taxes were collected 
by the Administration, but the Americans have divided 
the business and the internal revenue collector gets part 
and the Provost Marshal-General the rest. The Provost 
Marshal collects all the license fees from the markets, 
butchers, cemeteries and such things, and fines. Here is 
the way the books stood this afternoon, showing what had 
been collected and paid since the Americans took hold : 

RECEIPTS. 

Seized fund $890,144 25 

Internal revenue collections 156,378 97 

Customs 1,811,358 21 

Captain of Port— fees 1,823 24 

Quartermaster 58 00 

Subsistence Department , 3,150 15 

Refund , 90 16 

Fines — Provost Court 10,455 81 

Water rents 37,060 82 

Markets 13,966 98 

Butchers 23,075 04 

Cemeteries 4,167 43 

Licenses 11,039 91 

DISBURSEMENTS TO NOV. 1. 

Treasury $1,000 00 

Provost Marshal General, for schools, street cleaning, 

sanitary department and fire department , . . 193 963 47 

Internal Revenue office, including $7,000 refund of 

taxes illegally collected 10,182 24 

Custom House, general expenses 17,754 16 

20 



306 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Chief Commissary, for support of Spanish prisoners. $537,244 74 
Captain of Port, for clearing river of obstructions 

and for launch hire 24,870 88 

General expenses — stationery and printing 495 66 

Medical supplies for Spanish prisoners 1,284 95 

Chief Quartermaster, general expenses, mostly 

transportation ' 300,424 7o 

Chief Ordnance Officer, arsenal repairs 1,200 00 

These items show very well the way in which the 
Americans ran things finacially in Manila. The depart- 
ure of the Spanish prisoners will cut off the principal 
source of expense, and the improvement of general condi- 
tions will increase the revenue. 

One thing about the American administration of the gen- 
eral Treasury strikes the visitor to the building as being 
evidently in sharp contrast to the old manner of doing 
things. In the long main room just outside of Major 
Kilbourne^s private office sits a solitary man. He is J. H. 
Greefkens, the chief clerk. He faces a double row of 
desks, where twenty-six men used to sit, and he does the 
work of the whole lot. Spanish oflBce hours were from 
nine to twelve in the morning, and each Spanish clerk had 
from two to four Tagals to do his work. Greefkens 
works from nine until twelve and from two until five and 
does not feel overworked. 

The general condition of the building has not been 
changed in the least since the Spaniards quit it in haste 
last August. The books and papers lie strewn about the 
floors of the unused rooms as the Spaniards left them. 
Dust lies thick on everything, but there will be no clean- 
ing up until the cleaners know for whom they are work- 
ing. 

CHAPTEE XLV 

CHRISTMAS IN" MANILA 

Manila, Dec. 26. — Yesterday was Christmas. If 
that seems a striking statement, several circumstances 
may be cited in proof. On the whole, however, demon- 
stration seems unnecessary. In view of the fact that the 
newspapers had been proclaiming daily for two weeks 
that yesterday would be Christmas, the weather consider- 
ately took the hint, and the thermometer, mindful, no 



CHRISTMAS IN MANILA 307 

doubt, of the old truth that a green Christmas makes a 
fat graveyard, dropped almost out of sight. The mer- 
cury went down nearly to the 75° mark, and one thought 
of winter and overcoats. 

The convent bells were aware of the day, and began to 
gossip about it long before the gun of the Sixth Artillery 
got ready to proclaim across the darkness that day would 
begin very soon. They call that gun the sunrise gun, 
prompted, of course, by ancient tradition, but they fire 
it just after midniglit, as many in Manila will swear, just 
as they sound off retreat, and have evening parade in the 
middle of the afternoon before the sun has begun to tinge 
the peaks of the Sierra Mariveles with sanguinary glory. 
The clamouring bells kept their scandalous tongues wag- 
ging until the day was full born and after, and even then 
occasionally some belated monk or sleepy friar would 
suddenly realise what day it was and try his best to renew 
the racket. 

Eacket was all it was : it couldn^t be called anything 
else. The melody has been jangled out of all these 
Manila bells for years. Their voices are cracked and 
querulous now and they are old and cross and disappointed 
and bad-tempered. They hang around churches that are 
moss-grown and musty, and not for years have they seen 
anything clean or heard anything sweet and true. So over 
the green-over-red roofs and down the narrow streets, 
sometimes one by one in mockery of their ancient solem- 
nity, sometimes clamorously all together, they shout 
their useless gossip and bear their idle tales. For now 
nearly all of the pomp and show that once attended their 
clangour is gone. Those who were wont to heed their 
noisy calls are occupied with matters of more instant im- 
portance, or perhaps have fled to Spain. Night before 
last little processions of Americans wandered through the 
dark streets asking one another where ^^the mass " was 
to be said. But no one knew, and no bell from any idle 
tower bestirred its tongue to tell. But when midnight 
came and the last of us had given up the hunt and gone 
home leaving only the statuesque sentries pacing lonely 
along the streets, the bells began all together in a sym- 
phony of jangles to tell the now useless story. 

So Christmas began in Manila. Then came the gun, 
that cataclysmic gun that makes one leap from his bedand 



308 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

dash to the window, expecting to see old Taal come danc- 
ing up from his southern province and settle on the Arch- 
bishop's palace, spouting fire and smoke and red-hot lava 
all the way. Smack behind the gun came the bugles, 
and just as on the first morning when the thing was done 
and just as on every morning since, Casa Todos turned 
out. To some noises one becomes accustomed. The roar 
of elevated trains disturbs the sleep of few New Yorkers. 
I have known men who could sleep through all the tumult 
of a foggy night on the East Eiver. But never a morning 
brought that gun and those bugles out in Manila that did 
not bring us with them. Sick or well, the complaint of 
'' I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up " had never to be 
said about this casa. The new call will be ^^ I can't keep 
'em up, I can't keep ^em up." It's the bugle of the Sixth 
Artillery that starts. The report of the gun has hardly 
set the echoes rolling down the Calle Nozaleda when the 
call begins. Sometimes you hear only the last part of 
it, because the first has been lost in the echo of the 
gun. But hardly has this regular finished his work 
when the other fellows take it up. The Signal Corps, 
quartered in the same barracks, and sleeping under arms 
many nights because their commander believes insurgent 
rumours, turn out soon after artillerymen, and then in 
the next street Wyoming blows a bugle. Montana, just 
around the corner, follows suit. From far down the Noza- 
leda Washington complains that ^'the Sergeant's worse 
than the Corporal," and over in the Calle Eeal North 
Dakota makes reply that the '' Captain's worst of all." By 
this time even the Fourteenth has been waked up, and its 
bugle is adding to the call, but Casa Todos has found out 
that it is not an earthquake but only reveille, and has 
gone back to the sleep of the just. 

But yesterday we stayed up. First it was Christmas, 
and we wanted to see what had been put in our stock- 
ings. We had nailed them outside the window so as to 
give old Santa Claus a fair chance, there being no chim- 
ney in the house. Oh, well, some other time will do to 
tell about what was in our stockings. A few years ago I 
would have said they were filled with hydrogen and 
oxygen and such things. Now I know there was a lot of 
argon. There's no telling what another year will disclose. 
Besides, this wasn't to be about what we got on Christmas 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 309 

Day. Anyway we didn't get nearly so much as some 
people got. There was the Twenty-third, for instance, 
it got nearly the whole Spanish army in Manila. It is the 
business of the Twenty- third to police part of the walled 
city, and that night, the night before Christmas, the 
Spanish soldiers started out to celebrate. It was all right 
for a little while, but then the Twenty-third had to take 
them in and put ^em to bed in their churches. We stayed 
up because we were going out to visit the fleet — the whole 
fleet — every ship in it. Just set down on paper that 
conveys no sort of idea of what we intended to attempt. 
If you have ever spent all summer with a fleet of men-o'- 
war and have friends aboard every ship in the fleet, you'll 
understand what it is to try to call on more than two of 
them, at the outside, in one day. Well, we started early 
in a special steam launch. The sun could hardly be seen 
when we reached the first ship, to say nothing of being over 
the foreyard, but they made it a special day and a special 
occasion. They lowered away the foreyard so the sun 
shouldn't have such a hard time getting over. 

I'm not going to try to tell you how we did it, but we 
got around the whole squadron. One ship helped us out 
a great deal. The ward-room mess had had a smoker the 
night before. You know. At last it was the Olympia, 
and there the Admiral had been giving a tiffin to all his 
comn^^anders. They were all out on the quarter-deck 
together, and there they took us. '' Lucky dogs " they 
said we were, but that was because of the '^P. P. C." 
part of it. Curious, wasn't it, how all those men wanted 
to get home ? They had done their work, and would be 
glad to stay if there was more work to do, but — why, 
don't you know, that wasn't any more like Christmas 
than it was like what we think heaven will be. 

But yesterday was Christmas in Manila. 



CHAPTER XLVI 

HOMEWAED BOUND 

Steamship YuEK Sung, Dec. 28.— Toil, tumult, bustle, 
and then delay, marked the beginning of the American 
occupation of Manila. There was a wild rush to catch 
the transports, a tremendous straining of nerves to get 



3IO OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

them loaded, a wonderful march through the streets 
of San Francisco, when the first troops went aboard, and 
then the transports lay in the river nearly a day waiting 
for somebody else to move. Lying in a long chair on the 
hurricane deck of the Yuen Sang night before last and 
watching the lights of Manila and Cavite fade out into the 
moonlit distance, all that riot of beginning came back to 
mind vividly again in the marked similarity of the per- 
formances attendant upon leaving Manila and starting 
home. Always, in Manila, home seemed not only very, 
very far away, but also up a very, very steep hill, ex- 
tremely difficult to climb. It needed a lot of packing up 
and arranging. All kinds of temperatures are to be met 
on the journey, and one's blood, thinned out by the tropic 
living, will need considerable comforting in the way of 
warm clothing. Packing with reference to all the con- 
siderations of the forty days' journey can hardly be done 
in a short time, but if there is only a short time in which 
to do it, why, then it must be done, if it takes all night, 
and so it did. 

Morning brought the appalling problem of transporting 
all the boxes, bags, bundles, and trunks to the steamer, 
'^anchored in the deep," as the Spaniards say, dis- 
tinguishing from ships in the Pasig. It was a case of 
cariton, and ^^ Symphony of the Angels," the Xo. 2 boy 
was sent to look for the bull-cart. ^^ Symphony " is a 
good boy, with a long upper lip and a large mouth full of 
white teeth. His name, as he wrote it down so that he 
should not be called out of it in his recommendation, is 
Sinforoso de los Angeles. Looking at him, one recalls 
the twelfth century angels on the walls of the Cologne 
gallery, and wonders if connecting links have not been 
misplaced. Those twelfth century angels remind one of 
the " big giraffe with asthmatic laugh, and legs all out 
of joint." So does Sinforoso. He is a rectangular sort 
of angel. When he walks his joints move forward first, 
and the rest of him follows after in jerks. It suggests 
the motion of a broken cornstalk wabbling in the wind. 
But he is sure, and we knew of a certainty that if we sent 
him for that bull-cart at seven in the morning, he would 
keep after it all day, if necessary. That was because when 
we sent him to look for a quiles, one night, and he came 
back and reported ^^ no hay/' we sent him to stand on the 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 3II 

corner until some should " hay" We called him Symphony, 
because that was what he was. When he fitted the floor- 
cloths on his big splay feet at 6:30 every morning, and 
began to scrub up the front room floor, it was a perfect 
symphony. He danced, he hopped, he skipped, he 
glided, he slid over the polished hardwood until it glis- 
tened with mirror surface. He did jigs in the corners, 
pirouetted in the open, and waggled his toes under the big 
chairs. All the time his body was erect, and a seraphic 
grin exposed his teeth no betel nut had ever defiled. 

At the end of the morning Sinforoso brought the bull 
cart. The caritonero loaded on two trunks, a basket and 
a summer hat, and asked where he should go. The answer 
grieved him. Then he unloaded the hat and the basket, 
surveyed the pile of duffle in the yard and remarked " no 
puede." The entire flock of boys of the house flew at his 
head at once. As a precautionary measure in the matter 
of insuring their loyalty, not one of them had been paid 
for his month^s work, and they were keen in their service 
on the last day. Such a deal of mixed Tagalog and 
Spanish arose that the yard was filled with it, but it had 
its effect, for very soon the boxes and bundles began to go 
aboard the cart, and in a short time, as such things go in 
Manila, the cart was disappearing down the Luneta road 
toward the mole. 

There were a thousand things to do — or fewer — and men 
to see, and the last launch left at 2 : 30 sharp. There was 
no time for tiffin ; it was dash at top speed to place 
after place. Headquarters could not be cut short, so most 
of the others were dropped out completely, good friends 
were missed entirely, and just at the last moment the 
launch was caught. Away we went down the muddy 
Pasig for the last time. The sun shone brightly on the 
picturesque old wall. Fort Santiago stood out in the 
afternoon sun, its grey, musty old wall beautified by 
patches of brilliant green. Over it flew the bright new 
flag with which the Twenty-third Infantry had replaced 
the one Lieutenant Brumby hoisted on Aug. 13. 

At last the launch was alongside the steamer. Our 
luggage was aboard, everything was ready and the Stars 
and Stripes flew from the foretruck as a ''^ homeward 
bound." But we did not go. We were waiting for the 
shipping clerk — the one who had told us that the last 



312 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

launch would leave at 2 : 30 sharp. We sat on the hurri- 
cane deck and watched the sun drift down through the 
bank of clouds that always caps the Mariveles Mountains. 
The red tile roofs of Manila faded into a blue indistinguish- 
able from the grey iron. The deep purple of the moun- 
tains beyond the city changed to black. A regiment of 
white-clad soldiers marched out onto the plaza beyond the 
Luneta and went through evening parade. Far across 
the bay their bugles sounded, playing retreat — the last 
time for ns. Down came our Stars and Stripes from the 
Yuen Sang^s foretruck. One by one the carriages gathered 
along Malecon and the Luneta. The electric lights came 
out. We heard the band playing in the big stand, and 
then the shipping clerk came. We had had our hurry 
and work and wait, and now we could go. 

West we went to the Boca Chica. The moon, almost 
at the full, sailed up the eastern sky straight behind us. 
Her yellow wake fell like a golden streak behind the ship, 
and the water, churned white by the whirling screw, fringed 
it with silver. With the feeble lights of Cavite winking 
at the south and the bright Luneta lights twinkling behind 
us we steamed away. How different those big Luneta 
lights looked now. In July, when we watched them at 
night from Oavite or Camp Dewey, they seemed somehow 
just about to go out. Now they burned stronger and 
stronger, and one could almost recognise his friends in 
the carriages dashing along beneath them. 

Down through the Boca Chica where now forty smokes 
an hour make no commotion whatever. It seems only 
a day or so ago that '^ smoke in the Boca Chica " turned 
every glass that way and sent a warship scurrying out 
from our fleet, with crew ready to go to quarters. Past 
Corregidor, his great red and white eye slowly and sol- 
emnly winking at us as we go by, just as he solemnly 
winked in the days before we came. Along up the coast 
we hold for a time, but further and further away it grows, 
until the last light goes out — and that^s the last of the 
Philippines for a few weeks at least. 



AGUINALDO 313 

CHAPTER XL VII 

AGUIKALDO 

Cavite, Philippin'e Islands July 22. — Sefior Don 
Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy — there was a time not so long 
ago when he left oft both the front and rear ends of that 
name — is a very clever young man. He has read the 
story of a young man from Corsica, who made considerable 
history at the other end of the century. Far be it from 
any carping critic to suggest that he endeavours to imitate 
that master of artillery. But there are certain marked 
traits which the two men have in common, even to the 
desire to wear gold collars. They say he is twenty-seven 
years old, and he looks it. It is a noticeable fact that all 
the leaders of the Filipinos are young ; that is the result 
of the conditions which make the background of the re- 
volutions, which make, in fact, the leaders themselves. 

In the days when young Aguinaldo was neither Senor 
nor Don, but just plain Emilio, he was servant boy for a 
Jesuit priest, and there lay the beginnings of his fortune, 
for this Jesuit, true to the traditions and teachings of his 
order, however false to the policy of his Church, gave the 
boy the foundation of the education which by its develop- 
ment has given him the mastery over his people. The 
native wit got the tools with which to work, and bound- 
less ambition drove it on until achievement is assuming 
proportions beyond the wildest dream of boyhood servant 
days. He left the priest and studied medicine. He went 
to Hong Kong and saw something of other peoples and 
of other intellects than degenerate Spanish or undevel- 
oped Filipino. 

In this growth to manhood and this struggle for educa- 
tion young Aguinaldo found personal experience of the 
amazing blindness of the masters of the islands. The 
rule of the Spanish in the Philippines is almost beyond 
belief. Nevertheless, the testimony is convincing. The 
nation which deliberately does all in its power to retard 
the progress of learning, to prevent the education of its 
people, has small claim to civilisation. In these islands 
it was practically a crime for a Filipino to achieve any 



314 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

education. If he came to the notice of the authorities it 
was more than probable that, if he were not disposed of 
more effectively, he would be exiled. Aguinaldo suffered 
this punishment for his ambition, and now he is taking 
revenge. His friends, his relatives, suffered similarly, 
and now strive with him for vengeance on the Spaniard. 
He has taken his vengeance by what means he could, and 
if his methods have not always been most consistent with 
our standard of honour, it must be remembered who were 
his masters and from whom he learned the lesson of good 
faith. 

I shall not try to tell the story of the Filipinos. A 
spot here and there shows the trend of their own develop- 
ment, and of their work. They are stoical in endurance, 
one benefit of three centuries of Spanish oppression and 
misrule. They can endure and be still, endure physical 
pain and suffering, with the outward indifference of a red 
Indian. They have the patience of Pamle SeroMg, limit- 
less courage of the fighting sort, and ambition, in the 
case of their leaders, that knows neither metes nor bounds. 
In manners they are polite and agreeable, and intercourse 
with European civilisation has given some of their leaders 
a distinguishing polish. They affect the hauteur and the 
reserve of their old Spanish rulers, and thereby attach to 
themselves the dignity of position. The people are sim- 
ple, open-hearted, hospitable, with an unshakable faith in 
the wisdom, the ability and the truth of their leaders. 
Especially is this true of Aguinaldo. By whatever means 
he acquired his hold on the Filipinos, his word now is 
law with them, as General Anderson has found out in his 
brief experience here. 

Father Cecilio Damian, pastor of the church at San 
Eoque, the village across the Causeway from Cavite, told 
me that there was but one real cause for the rebellion, 
though that one cause produced many second causes. 
That one cause was the priests. This is a Catholic 
country. 

*' How many people are there in all the Philippine 
Islands ? " I asked Father Damian. 

'^ Eight millions," he replied. ^^ Perhaps a few more ; 
perhaps a few less." 

*^ How many Catholics are there in the Philippines ? " 
I asked. 



AGUINALDO 315 

*^ Eight millions. Perhaps a few more ; perhaps a few 

less.'' 

Altogether there were about 1,500 priests when the 
Filipinos rebelled. There were Augustinians, Dominicans, 
Franciscans, Lazarists, Eecoletos, a few Capuchins, and 
Jesuits. All but the Jesuits had '^ malam famam'^ 
throughout the islands. Father Damian did me the 
honour to endeavour to understand my Latin, which no 
one else has ever been able to do, but that, after all, was 
not so much. Father Reany, chaplain of the Olympia, be- 
ing the chief talker. Latin being the only comm^on 
ground between us, the range of the interview was not 
wide. It began with our incjuiry for the twenty-three 
priests who had been imprisoned in the old convent at 
Cavite. Father Damian agreed with our assertion that 
there had been twenty-three priests. There he stopped 
for a long time. Finally, by dint of English, Spanish, 
German, French, and Latin, a large measure of the first 
which he failed completely to understand, and a small 
scattering of the others, which he grasped at in the tradi- 
tional fashion of the drowning man and the traditional 
straw, we drove it through his head that we wanted to 
know where those twenty-three priests were. They had 
been moved that morning, and I wanted one of them who 
had been getting some material for me. When the mean- 
ing of our remarks finally dawned on Father Damian his 
face lighted up with a smile that was beautiful to see. 
Always before he had replied " non intelligo," but now 
surely we should get a more satisfactory reply. But this 
time he said '' nescio.'^ He understood what we wanted 
at last, but he didn't know the answer. 

We returned to the priests of the " bad repute '^ and 
got along better. I had been told that some priests had 
been shot by Aguinaldo a few days before. Father Da- 
mian is one of Aguinaldo's supporters. He admitted 
that priests had been shot, but not by Don Emilio's com- 
mand. 

'' Who did command the shooting ? " 

''^0 one. The soldiers who took them prisoners shot 
them without orders." 

" Why ? " 

*^ Because of the insurrection.^' — Propter insurrec- 
tionem. 



3l6 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

A dozen times we got around to that same question, 
why were these priests shot ? and every time the answer 
was the same, *' Vropter insurrectionem.'^ That sort of 
bafflement produces a fine frenzy for the study of lan- 
guages. You try it half a day or so and you ^Y\\\ have a 
firmly fixed resolution to learn all the tongues and dialects 
spoken if you ever go away from home again. Finally we 
got it through Father Damian^s head that we wanted to 
know the particular act which led to the particular shoot- 
ing of any particular priest. He smiled again and said 
there were many causes, so many that it was impossible 
to enumerate them. Then he made his most expressive 
assertion, and he did it without words. He raised both 
hands and spread them out as if he were going to pack 
cotton down in a barrel. Then he pushed them down. 
The action was repeated with flashing eyes and angry 
gesture several times. One needed no interpreter to spell 
*"' oppression " out of that sign language. So we got it 
out of him, little by little, how the priests had abused 
their office, violated the sanctity of the confessional, 
bribed, corrupted, robbed, seduced women, borne false 
witness, made false accusations against innocent men, 
grown rich and fat on their plunder, and in all ways 
prostituted their great calling to their personal and 
wicked ambitions. 

All this has been confirmed by all classes of the Fili- 
pinos, and by every European who has lived here any 
length of time whom I have seen. The waiter man, the 
cook, the stevedore, the boatman, the sweet seller, the 
tailor, the druggist, the watchmaker, the intelligent 
young men who have travelled a little, or been exiled, 
some of them, for the crime of seeking an education, all 
have only one cause for the rebellion — the priests. 

*^It is not a revolution against the Church," says one 
of the most intelligent of Aguinaldo's aides. " The reli- 
gion is all right, but the administration of it is all wrong. 
The priesthood is rotten — saving always the Jesuits — and 
if the Filipinos are to live and to progress, the priesthood 
must go." 

All these things, known to him from his boyhood, 
driven into his soul by Spanish misunderstanding and 
ignorance, make the basis for Aguinaldo's schemes. Per- 
sonally, I believe him to be only a great adventurer, like 



AGUINALDO 317 

that man at the other end of the century whom he imitates 
in his small way. His ambition is as boundless as ^N'apo- 
leon's, but he has less with which to work. His oppor- 
tunity is not as great, his tools are not as fine, but his 
spirit is as daring and his will is as dauntless. His cour- 
age is limitless, and is of the dashing type which has 
given him the ascendency over his people which he now 
holds. The humblest peasant speaks of Don Emilio as a 
^'terrible fighter." He has surrounded himself with 
brave, clever men, most of whom are apparently thor- 
oughly patriotic. They are devoted entirely to Aguinaldo 
because they believe that that way lies the best chance of 
success, but they are not blind to his ambition or to his 
schemes. The loot of a splendid city like Manila would 
be a tremendous thing for Aguinaldo. And he would not 
hesitate. He has a hard, cold, cruel face, and a hard, 
cold, cruel disposition. His methods show him to be un- 
scrupulous and suspicious of every man whom he cannot 
dominate completely. It is not safe to be too conspicuous 
in his government or to have opinions which differ too 
much from his own. The most successful leader, except 
himself, Atachio, who conducted the movements in the 
north of Luzon in the last revolution, and quarrelled 
with Aguinaldo over the division of the Spanish bribe 
which bought the peace the Spanish arms could not win, 
has disappeared. On his part, when the quarrel was 
settled, he gave Aguinaldo his loyal support in this rebel- 
lion. Aguinaldo arrested him at the first chance, and 
his brother, his cousin and two nephews as well. Atachio 
is gone, and they whisper it around the headquarters at 
Bakor that he has been shot. The other four await the 
summons. 

Sandico, most brilliant of them all, who is in his native 
country now after ten years of exile, and who brought 
about the settlement of the trouble between Aguinaldo 
and Atachio, is in a house in San Eoque ^^ awaiting 
orders." Every day some one of his American friends 
goes to headquarters to ask after him, and so he is kept 
alive. He would have been taken with Atachio, but he 
heard of it in time to get out to the Olympia. Aguinaldo 
assured him no harm should come to him, but not until 
the promise was renewed to Admiral Dewey did Sandico 
go ashore. 



3l8 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Sandico's crime is knowing Don Emilio, and why Don 
Emilio fights. He has told the Dictator that his aim is 
not possible of attainment. The dream of a Filipino 
republic is fine for conjuring with the natives, but they 
are not capable of self-government- 4^guinaldo knows 
that, too, and he does not mean that there shall be real 
self-government, but only its shell, with himself as the 
centre, the mainspring, the Dictator, the Government 
itself. 

"A Filipino republic," says Sandico, ^' would be the 
victim of the ambitions of all Europe." 

Aguinaldo knows this to be the truth, but before Europe 
realised on its ambition, he would have had the looting 
of the richest and most valuable islands in the East, a 
prize for a king, a pearl without price. 

A liberal government, patterned on our own, with Fili- 
pinos in it wlien they have demonstrated their fitness and 
ability, under the protection of the Stars and Stripes, with 
Americans to guide until the people reach such a stage of 
advancement that they can help themselves, free speech, 
free worship, and free life, that is the dream of Sandico, 
who thinks not for himself, but for his people. Both 
men look to the Americans for help, Aguinaldo, crafty 
and clever, for the furtherance of his own schemes, San- 
dico, brilliant and patriotic, as the hope of his people. 

^^I may not live to see it," says Sandico, with a smile 
and a shrug of his shoulders. *^ Some day I may follow 
Atachio, but I hope." 

When the American soldiers landed in Cavite on the 
first of the month they found Aguinaldo in full possession 
beyond the navy yard gates. The first unpleasant indica- 
tion of his presence was in the practical arrest of Lieutenant 
Clark, General Anderson's aide. Clark was walking about 
Cavite when a Filipino soldier told him Aguinaldo wanted 
to see him at once at Filipino headquarters. Clark went 
there and Aguinaldo asked him what he was doing in 
Cavite. Clark said he was Anderson's aide and was on 
the General's business. Aguinaldo said very well, he 
would give Lieutenant Clark his permission to go aloout 
the place. That night General Anderson sent word to 
Aguinaldo that he was in command in Cavite and his 
officers and men must not be interfered with. 

On the Fourth of July x^guinaldo was indisposed and 



AGUINALDO 319 

could not accept Anderson's invitation to see the review 
of the First Bri2:ade. He sent his wonderful band 
instead, and that was better than his presence, intrin- 
sically, if not in army courtesy. A day or two later he 
called on General Anderson, and then the American 
made a mistake in diplomacy of which the clever Filipino 
has not failed to make the most. The Filipino was re- 
ceived with military honours. A company of the Four- 
teenth Eegulars presented arms as he came to the head- 
quarters building, and the trumpeters blew the General's 
salute. The young insurgent leader was cautious and re- 
served in manner. He had already proclaimed himself first 
Dictator and then President of the Philippine Eepublic 
in order to forestall the Americans as much as possible, 
and now he wanted to learn as much as possible of the 
Americans' intentions. But he had no confidences to ex- 
change. Finally he asked directly what the Americans 
intended to do in regard to the Philippines. 

^^ We have lived as a nation 122 years," replied General 
Anderson, through his interpreter, ^'and have never 
owned or desired a colony. We consider ourselves a great 
nation as we are, and 1 leave you to draw your own 
inference." 

The face of the young Filipino was like a mask, and 
no fleeting change of expression showed how quick he 
was to grasp the tactical error, but his eyes danced, and 
he said to his interpreter : 

*' Tell General Anderson that I do not fear that the 
Americans will annex the Philippines, because I have 
read their Constitution many times and I do not find a 
provision there for annexation or colonisation.'^ 

When Aguinaldo returned to his headquarters he 
found there a letter from General Anders-on saying that 
another American expedition would soon arrive and that 
room would be needed for these soldiers. He replied at 
once, suggesting the use of the old convent of Cavite. Gen- 
eral Anderson had it inspected by his surgeons, who pro- 
nounced it unsanitary. Then there was more corre- 
spondence with Aguinaldo, who finally moved his head- 
quarters across Bakor Bay to Bakor, and has within a 
day or two ordered his micn out of all the places they 
occupied in Cavite. To comply with this order the 2,000 
or more Spanish prisoners he holds have been shifted out 



320 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

to the provinces controlled by the insurgents and scat- 
tered around. There are bullets enough for all who 
make any show of trouble. 

It was when General Anderson decided to send a bat- 
talion of the First California over to camp near Tambo, 
on the shore of Manila Bay, south of Manila, that the 
friction between Americans and Filipinos first became 
apparent. There is no doubt that Aguinaldo fears very 
much that he will lose his great prize through the actions 
of the Americans. He recognises the fact that practically 
all the success of his second revolution has come through 
their assistance. But if they annex the islands, or rule 
them after their capture, the great object of his work 
will be lost. There will be no loot of a rich city if they 
control it, and he will never be Dictator of their govern- 
ment. He might have made great headway in his rebel- 
lion without the Americans. He had nearly $500,000 in 
gold, the bribe of the first peace, with which to arm and 
equip his men for the new war, and he justified the new 
rebellion by the charge that the Spanish had not given the 
reforms which they had promised when he stopped the 
first rebellion. But the Americans had helped him very 
much, and he wanted to make at least a show of friendli- 
ness in response. So he was in a peculiar position when 
the Americans began to land troops between his head- 
quarters and his lines. That was notice that the Amer- 
icans were going ahead without regard to his actions or 
the disposition of his troops. He was not to be consid- 
ered in the final action or the disposition of the prize. Then 
Major Jones, the Chief Quartermaster, demanded active 
assistance from the Filipinos. He needed labour and 
material for the transportation of the men and their sup- 
plies to the camp. They were landed at Paranaque, and 
Camp Tambo was two miles up the road toward Manila. 
Major Jones talked with the natives, and found he could 
get neither carts nor men without Don Emilio's permis- 
sion. He found one of Aguinaldo's oflicers and demanded 
carts and men to help with the work. The officers said 
there were no carts ; but the Major found them. The 
men would not work, but the Major persuaded them. At 
last, late at night, the California men got into their camp. 

But that was only the beginning. There was an army 
division almost to be put into that camp, and not a mere 



AGUINALDO 32 1 

battalion, and that day's work couid not be permitted 
again. There were carromattas and ponies and bullock 
carts and bullocks in the country in plenty, and he meant 
to have them. He went to Bakor the next morning to see 
the young President. Dictator Aguinaldo was ^^ indis- 
posed.^' The Major waited a while and then went again. 
This time Aguinaldo was asleep. Then the Major wrote 
a letter which, for the first time, came out flat-footed and 
said what the Americans were doing in the Philippines. 
This is what he wrote : 

*^ General Anderson wishes me to say that, the second 
expedition having arrived, he expects to encamp in 
the vicinity of Paranaque from 5,000 to 7,000 men. To 
do this, supply this army, and shelter it, will require cer- 
tain assistance from the Filipinos in this neighbourhood. 
We shall want horses, buffaloes, carts, etc., for trans- 
portation, wood to cook with, etc. For all this we are 
willing to pay a fair price, but no more. We find so far 
that the native population are not willing to give us this 
assistance as promptly as required. But we must have it, 
and if it becomes necessary we shall be compelled to send 
out parties to seize what we may need. We should regret 
very much to do this, as we are here to befriend the 
Filipinos. Our nation has spent millions of money to 
send forces here to expel the Spaniards and to give a good 
government to the whole people, and the return we are 
asking is comparatively slight. 

'' General Anderson wishes you to inform your people 
that we are here for their good, and that they must 
supply us with labour and material at the current market 
prices. We are prepared to purchase 500 horses at a fair 
price, but cannot undertake to bargain for horses with 
each individual owner. 

'' I regret very much that I am unable to see you per- 
sonally, as it is of the utmost importance that these 
arrangements should be made as soon as possible. 

" I will await your reply." 

The reply did not come, and the Major was compelled 

to return to Cavite without it. Hard behind him came 

one of Aguinaldo's aides to General Anderson demanding 

to know whether the Major's letter was by authority or 

21 



322 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

not. General Anderson replied that it was not only by 
his wish, but by his order, and, furthermore, that when 
an American commander was indisposed, or asleep, some 
one was in authority to transact business of importance. 

The next day Aguinaldo replied formally to the letter. 
He was surprised that there should have been any sugges- 
tion of unwillingness on the part of the Filipinos to aid 
the Americans, for the Filipinos knew that the Americans 
*^ did not desire a colony," and were here only to drive 
out the Spaniards and turn the islands over to the 
Filipinos for government. The Filipinos were only too 
glad to help the Americans, but they could not furnish 
so much transportation, because they did not have it. 
Then Aguinaldo calmly asked for a definite statement of 
the American intentions. He had called General Ander- 
son's hand. 

General Anderson replied, simply acknowledging the 
receipt of Aguinaldo's letter, and saying that it would be 
referred to General Merritt. 

The next day Major Jones found that Aguinaldo had 
caused to be made a list of all the horses, carts, carromat- 
tas, and vehicles in the Bakor-Paranaque district. Notice 
had been sent to all owners of means of transportation 
that they were not to engage in any service for the Amer- 
icans that might interfere in the performance of any 
service for Don Emilio. The Filipinos understood, and 
when they took their carromattas home they took off the 
wheels and hid them. The Americans could seize the 
carts, but they would have to make a house-to-house 
search for the wheels. That night Major Jones reported 
the facts to General Anderson, but nothing has been 
done. The Major is working like a horse to get the men 
and their supplies into camp without facilities. Every- 
thing is landed on the beach directly opposite the camp, 
and the men hustle the supplies up as best they can. 

The proclamation which Aguinaldo issued the other 
day shows more of the man than many pages of descrip- 
tion can tell. It recalls irresistibly the work and worry 
of Napoleon making rules for his court about uniforms 
and dress. Aguinaldo is clever and he is ambitious and 
he is unscrupulous. He has a slight advantage diplo- 
matically now. We shall be lucky if we do not come to 
an open rupture. Here is the proclamation : 



AGUINALDO 323 

Don Emilio Aguinaldo y Fajiy. 

President of the Revolntionary Government of the Philippines 
and General-in-Cliief of its Army : 

In conformity with tlie precepts in the decree of this Govern- 
ment, dated June 23, ult., and the instructions which accom- 
panied it, I proclaim as follows : 

Article I. Seiior Don Baldomero Aguinaldo is appointed 
Secretary of War and Public Works ; Senor Don Leandro Ibarra, 
Secretary of the Interior and branches comprehended therein ; 
Senor Don Mariano, Trias, Secretary of the Treasury and the 
annexed branches. 

The conduct of the Bureau of Foreign Relations, Marine and 
Commerce will be in charge provisionally, for the present, of the 
Presidency, until there is appointed a Secretary who is considered 
more apt. 

Art. 2. The gentlemen named will assume charge of their 
respective offices, previously having solemnly taken on the day 
designated for that purpose by the President, the following oath : 
" I swear by God and my honour to carry out the laws and deci- 
sions and to fulfil faithfully the duty I voluntarily accept, under 
the penalties established for the same. So may it be." 

This oath will be taken before the President and the digni- 
taries who are invited for this solemn act, the interested person 
placing his right hand on the New Testament. 

Art. 3. The directors and chiefs of provinces and villages, on 
receiving their respective titles, will take a similar oath before 
the President and the Secretaries of the Government. 

The prominent counsellors, as well as the delegates and sub- 
chiefs, will take the oath before the chief of the province and the 
chiefs of villages previously invited to the solemn act. 

Art. 4. In the reports and similar documents presented to 
the authorities and in official correspondence there will be em- 
ployed before the name of the official the title "Senor "or " Ma- 
guinor" (Tagalo), according to the character and importance of 
the same. When the official is not so addressed the personal 
title " Usted " will be used when directed to an inferior or an 
equal, but when addressed to a superior the title " Vosotros" will 
be employed. 

Art. 5. The Secretaries are empowered to sign by order of the 
President, such resolutions or decisions as are of small importance 
and those which expediency requires should be put into effect, 
but final decrees and resolutions v/ill be confirmed by the Presi- 
dent and the Secretary. 

Art. 6. The chiefs of provinces are permitted to use as dis- 
tinctive of their office a cane with gold head and silver tassels. 
On the upper part of the cane there will be engraved a sun and 
three stars. 

The chiefs of villages may carry a similar cane, but with 
black tassels. The sub-chiefs also may carry a cane with silver 
head and red tassels. 

The provincial counsellors are authorised to wear a triangular 
badge of gold, pendent from a collar and a chain of the same 



324 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

metal : on the badge there shall appear an engraved sun and 
three stars. The delegates will wear a similar badge but of 
silver ; also the chain. 

Art. 7. The President will wear as a distinctive mark a collar 
of gold from which depends a badge similar to those heretofore 
described, and also a whistle of gold. The Secretaries will wear 
a similar collar with the badge, and the directors, also, but of 
silver. 

The President will carry also a cane with head and tassels of 
gold. 

Dated at Bakor, July 5, 1898. 

The President of the Revolutionary Government, 

Emilio Aguinaldo. 



CHAPTER XLVIII 

DKEAMS OF THE FILIPINO CHIEF 

Mai^ila, Sept. 2. — In the opinion of the men in Manila 
best informed on the subject, and who have the most 
trustworthy and extensive sources of information, the in- 
surgent situation is developing a serious aspect. Agui- 
naldo plays a crafty game, and he is a skillful player. 
Nominally the American occupation of the city is peace- 
ful. There is comparatively very little lawlessness for a 
city of the size of Manila, and things go smoothly. But 
business, although apparently reviving, cannot go very 
far, because the insurgents hold the provinces, and the 
commerce of Manila itself is only a part of the business of 
the port. Hemp, sugar, tobacco and wood come from the 
interior and furnish the bulk of Philippine trade. All 
these are shut off, and there is no telling now when the 
embargo will be raised. Meantime the Americans sit 
tight awaiting developments at home and in Paris, and 
Aguinaldo waxes. He has sent part of his men into the 
fields to plant rice for future war necessities, but scores 
and hundreds of others take their places, drawn from 
other parts of the island, and although in the city and 
close about it his adherents are peaceful and quiet, out- 
side the territory held by the Americans his war with the 
Spanish goes on Avith increasing vigour on his part, and the 
same story of siege, demoralisation and defeat on the side 
of the Spanish. 

Aguinaldo is a born leader of men, of undoubted 
shrewdness and ability. In spite of all that has been 
said about the bribery deal by which the last insurrection 



DREAMS OF THE FILIPINO CHIEF 325 

was settled by the Spanish on payment of several hundred 
thousand dollars to Aguinaldo and some of his principal 
followers, in spite of the legal row they got into at Hong 
Kong over the distribution of this ^'^ prize money/' his 
friends and those who know him best assert that Agui- 
naldo is honest and sincere. They cite in proof that he 
is poor. He is not particularly well educated, but, con- 
sidering the circumstances of his birth and early years, it 
is rather to his credit that he has any education at all 
than derogatory to him that he is not a learned man. 
Years, or the lack of them, are also against him on this 
score. But, educated or not, he has without doubt the 
personal magnetism that draws men of his race to him. 
Among certain elements of the Filipinos — using Filipinos 
in the broad sense as meaning natives of the islands — 
particularly among the Tagals, his own people, he has un- 
doubtedly a very great popularity, and by nearly all the 
natives of whatever tribe or class he is held in high esteem. 
Many of the Filipinos, particularly the genuine Filipinos 
— using the term now in its specific sense of Spanish- 
native half-caste — are better educated than Aguinaldo, 
and have won greater wealth. Some of these do not con- 
sider him to be fitted by nature or training for the re- 
sponsible post of head of their G-overnment. Except for 
his work in the insurgent cause his experience in ad- 
ministration was gained while he was '^little Grovernor," 
as the Spanish call it, a sort of sub-chief, or tax collector, 
of a small town in one of the provinces. 

Aguinaldo has dreamed great dreams, as strong, am- 
bitious men do. There was a time, not so very long ago, 
when young Sandico, the bicycle-making professor of 
languages, who is one of the cleverest as well as one of 
the most honourable of Aguinaldo's followers, was in rather 
serious trouble, suspected as to his loyalty, by his chief, 
and in actual fear of his life, because he had had the 
temerity to warn Aguinaldo repeatedly, and to insist on 
his position, that an independent Filipino republic would 
be independent but in name, and even that for only a 
short time. "Wq should be the victims of the ambitions 
of all Europe," said Sandico, and Aguinaldo sent him to 
live in San Roque alone, out of the councils of the Gov- 
ernment, and uncertain as to his fate, ^ow, however, 
Aguinaldo professes to see that Sandico was right and so 



326 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

he says he has modified his own views. Sandico is again 
in favour, and at the present is one of Aguinaldo's most 
useful men in Manila, where he is asort of Commissioner- 
General, bearing an olive branch and an oil bag, ready to 
be peacemaker wherever and whenever there threatens the 
slightest collision between the Americans and the 
insurgents. 

Retrocession from his original idea of independence has 
fixed Aguinaldo with apparently immovable purpose in a 
new position but little removed, so far as he is concerned, 
from the old one. The great dream, he now admits, was 
only a dream, but the ambition that persuaded itself for so 
long that it could vault to such heights will not be con- 
vinced, by peaceful arguments at least, that the next lower 
elevation is still too lofty for its attainment. Aguinaldo is 
done with colonial governments. While he has guns to 
shoot and men to fire them he will be no more a ^' colon- 
ial." Rather be a rebel all his life and die on the gallows 
or be shot like a dog. And it is not only a Spanish colonial 
government that he will fight, but it is any colonial gov- 
ernment, Spanish preferred if it must be fought, but 
American just as earnestly if that becomes the necessity 
from his viewpoint. While Aguinaldo leads, the insur- 
gents will not submit peaceably to being a colony of any 
government on earth. Aguinaldo gives up absolute inde- 
pendence and falls back on a Filipino republic under the 
protection of some strong power, preferably the ITnited 
States. In that position it is a case of *^ J'y suis, fy resfe, " 

For other reasons than that he would become ambi- 
tion's victim Aguinaldo is wise in renouncing his dream 
of independence. The Filipinos are unfit for self- 
government. It is fair to assume, and testimony of men 
familiar with the peoples of the islands bears out the as- 
sumption, that the Tagals are the most advanced of all 
the native tribes. They have had the advantage, such as 
it is, of association witli Spanish civilisation. That is not 
the greatest good fortune that could have befallen them, 
but it is a tremendous advance over the other fellows, 
who have had for associates simply themselves or other 
savages. Ideas of government are in the crudest state 
among them, and even among the Tagals and pure Fili- 
pinos. Spanish half-castes — there are comparatively few 
men who understand the scope and responsibility of self- 



DREAMS OF THE FILIPINO CHIEF 327 

government. There are men in Manila, some of them 
officers of our army, who have had extensive dealings 
with Aguinaldo and his leaders, who are satisfied that 
some of them are honourable men, thoroughly trustworthy, 
and quite capable of self-government. But even these 
friends of the insurgent chiefs admit that the capable 
and trustworthy men are too few in number either to 
organise or conduct a government of their own. It might 
be of the people, but neither for nor by the people. 
These friends of Aguinaldo are convinced that they are 
correct in \heir estimate of him and his principal leaders, 
but there are other American officers who have had ex- 
perience with him who hold exactly opposite views. 
They believe him to be purely selfish, a shrewd, crafty 
schemer for personal advantage, as utterly unworthy of 
trust, as incapable of organising or managing an equable 
or stable Government. To such an extent is opinion 
divided. There is this fact to Aguinaldo's credit, that only 
strong men so divide the estimates other men make of 
them. 

Aside from the question of the integrity and ability of 
Aguinaldo and his chiefs, however, the question of their 
self-government presents other practically insurmountable 
difficulties. They would be obliged to fill many of the 
more important official posts and all the minor ones with 
men whose only standard of government is that set them 
by the Spanish, a system of corruption, treachery, deceit, 
bribery, robbery, tyranny and meanness almost beyond 
the comprehension of upright men. Equity and justice 
are qualities but slightly developed in the average Fili- 
pino. Their actions since the Americans have occupied 
Manila have demonstrated clearly this fact. Under the 
pretence of collecting subscriptions to the insurgent 
cause a regular system of blackmail has been practised. 
Men apparently authorised by the sub-chiefs to make 
levies have gone among the native residents of the city 
and enforced contributions. It is probable that not much 
of this money reached the insurgent treasury, the larger 
part of it being divided among the sub-chiefs. The 
natives living in the outskirts of the city have been sub- 
jected almost daily to the demands of small bands of 
marauders whose sole object apparently was loot, for that 
is about all it amounts to. In several cases the Ameri- 



328 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

cans have caught the freebooters once or twice redhanded, 
and if the business is not stopped speedily there will be 
some severe punishment of the offenders. 

Still another demonstration of the inability of Agui- 
naldo to achieve self-government and maintain it is found 
in the fact that even in his own camp there is difference 
of opinion. It is a common assertion that every Filipino 
is an insurgent by nature and from desire. Xo doubt 
that is true as it stands. But not every Filipino is an 
Aguinaldo man, and recent developments have made the 
situation more difficult for the young chief. The more 
impetuous and hot-headed among them are chafing under 
the restraint imposed upon them by the American oc- 
cupation of the city, and particularly by the regulations 
which forbid them entrance into the city in force or with 
their arms. Their hearts were set on marching into the 
city with their army when the Spanish flag came down. 
So, indeed, was Aguinaldo's and his longing for a Roman 
triumph led him to ask General Merritt for permission to 
take his men in behind the American soldiers. The re- 
quest was ignored and Aguinaldo cloaked his disappoint- 
ment as best he could and made a show of restraining his 
men. This gave rise to suspicion of his motives, among 
some of his leaders. Now there is undoubtedly divided 
loyalty among the chiefs, and great differences of opinion 
exist among them. There are among his subordinates 
men who are dishonest and unworthy of trust. Some of 
them have conducted themselves in such a manner as to 
cast great discredit on the insurgents. Aguinaldo knows 
this, but either he is powerless to prevent it or he is afraid 
to make the effort for fear of open insubordination, which 
amounts to the same thing. 

He is making a serious effort to stop the petty maraud- 
ing, blackmail and lawlessness in the suburbs and out- 
skirts of the city, and at the same time he is making a 
politic appeal for support to some of the influential Fili- 
pinos in the city who have not heretofore been affiliated 
with his cause. Under the Spanish administration the 
city was divided into districts, administered by officials 
under the title of '"'little governors." These districts are 
subdivided into barrios, at the head of which were sub- 
chiefs, their principal business being the collection of 
taxes. Xow Aguinaldo has appointed a committee of 



DREAMS OF THE FILIPINO CHIEF 329 

thirty substantial and well-respected Filipinos in the city, 
called a " Junta Directiva/' to look out for the general 
welfare of the insurgent cause in Manila. This Junta 
has appointed a sub-committee for each district, which 
shall have charge of the collection of funds yoluntarily 
subscribed to the insurgent cause. Each sub-committee 
authorises an agent in each harrio to make the collections, 
and Aguinaldo hopes by the establishment of these author- 
ised and responsible collection agencies to put an end to 
the plundering by the lawless. He is fairly well supplied 
with funds at present. He is credited with having about 
1500,000, silver, all told. These are public funds, and he 
is using them for the public uses, as the insurgents see 
them. The insurgents have a cartridge factory, which 
employs 400 persons. 

In the face of all obstacles Aguinaldo still persists and 
dreams great dreams of power and place, fondly believing 
that they are within his grasp. To the open-minded 
American, wanting only a fair, complete, unbiased view 
of the situation in order to make up his mind as to the 
retention of these islands by the United States or the sur- 
render of them to the Filipinos, how does the picture 
appeal ? Does it show the ability for self-government or 
does it not ? For the men here who are familiar with 
the situation on the spot there is only one answer. Fili- 
pino self-government, to paraphrase the pyrotechnic 
ex-statesman from Kansas, ^^ is an iridescent dream." 
Few even of the Junta here are favourable to the eSort 
for self-government. The more honest, unprejudiced, 
and fair-minded Spaniards of the commercial class, who 
have not profited by officialism, the most influential, 
wealthiest, and best educated Filipinos, and the Britishers 
to a man, they who control the largest financial and busi- 
ness enterprises and have the largest interests at stake, 
are praying that the Americans will hold the country, 
and that the Stars and Stripes will float over the Luneta, 
as Dewey hopes, ^'forever, forever." 

These are the perplexities which beset Aguinaldo and 
the facts which will operate against the realisation of his 
dream. There is another side of the picture, or rather, 
in stricter truth, another picture of the Filipinos — that 
which shows their successes in the field. Since he landed 
in Cavite, in the third week in May, Aguinaldo has done 



330 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

some wonderful things. It is true that at the start most 
of his successes were obtained by the desertion of his 
people from the foolish Spaniards, who deluded them- 
selves into the belief that the voluntarios would be loyal 
to the death. By the steady process of desertion Agui- 
naldo chased the Spanish line nearly fifteen miles in what 
was practically one day. But now it is more like fight- 
ing. Success comes slowly, yet it keeps on coming to 
the insurgent arms. 

It is practically impossible to estimate the number of 
insurgents under arms in the vicinity of Manila. There 
is no effective organisation of the army. No Captain 
knows how many men exactly he has in his command, 
and it is doubtful if he has the same number or indeed 
the same men two days in succession. When a Filipino 
gets tired of staying at home he takes his gun and goes 
to the front. "When he gets tired of staying at the front, 
he takes his gun and goes home. That's all there is of it. 
But in a general way the officers know what men are in 
the country and who have guns. To add to the general 
difficulties of enumeration the men are being sent con- 
tinually to other provinces to aid in the fighting against 
the Spanish garrisons which still hold out. Besides 
this, many of the fighting men have followed Aguinaldo's 
advice, taken a rest from active warfare now, and gone 
to planting rice against the time when warfare shall 
become likely again and there will be no time to wait for 
crops to fill hungry bellies. The most accurate estimate 
of the insurgent forces around Manila must be based 
upon the number of arms known to be in the possession 
of Aguinaldo, and even that makes use of other estimates, 
which are really little better than guesses. 

The principal source of supply from which Aguinaldo 
drew to arm his men was the Spaniards themselves. 
They armed and equipped about 12,000 natives, who, 
when the time came, went over by companies and regi- 
ments to the insurgents, taking guns and equipment with 
them. Next in point of numbers came the Spanish 
prisoners captured with arms in their hands, and the 
arms the Spanish left in places which they abandoned to 
the insurgents. These guns number about 8,000. When 
the rebellion began there were in the hands of the Fili- 
pinos about 15,000 guns. They got from the arsenal in 



DREAMS OF THE FILIPINO CHIEF 33 1 

Cavite about 500 more and they bought from a firm of 
'^ gentlemen adventurers/' who managed to deliver the 
goods, 2,000 more. In all they have had nearly 40,000 
guns. It is probable that the Spanish got back a few 
thousand of these by the old successful method of bribery, 
apparently the best weapon for offensive warfare a Span- 
iard knows. They offered amnesty and $50 to each in- 
surgent who surrendered himself and his gun, and the 
loyal followers of Aguinaldo held themselves cheap at fifty 
'dobe dollars. This is the estimate of an army officer, 
who has made special investigation of the subject. In 
several particulars it is very liberal. The insurgents 
have claimed 6,000 prisoners at the most. They got 500 
rifles from the arsenal at Cavite and 500 more from the 
Spaniards taken at Isla de Grande in Subig Bay. It is 
doubtful if now the insurgents have more than 30,000 
rifles. They are of several makes, principally Mausers 
and Remingtons. They have been most abominably 
misused, and undoubtedly have lost largely in effective- 
ness. But armed as they are and with such ammunition 
as they could get, Aguinaldo's men have pushed a vigor- 
ous campaign. 

Aguinaldo is preparing to transfer his headquarters 
from Bakor to Malolos, on the railroad about half an 
hour north of the city. This is a good strategetical 
move. Bakor is between the American forces at Manila 
on the north and Cavite on the south, with the La- 
guna behind him. A sharp, swift advance from both 
points at once would crumple him up between the two 
forces, or send him scurrying into the mountains behind 
Imus. In the north, however, he takes no such risk, and 
there is plenty of country behind him easy of access for his 
men, but extremely difficult for our soldiers to traverse. 

At the time Aguinaldo proclaimed his republic and 
appointed his Cabinet he left vacant the office of Secre- 
tary of State, announcing that it was reserved for ^' the 
man who should be deemed most fit " for its difficult 
duties. He had in mind at the time, and still has, 
Cayetano S. Arellano, who has the reputation of being a 
clever lawyer and the best man among the native popula- 
tion. He is believed to be in favour of the annexation of 
the Philippines to the United States, and has declared 
his belief that his people are not sufficiently advanced to 



332 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

be able to govern themselves. He has been in Pagsanjan 
during the present rebellion, and although Aguinaldo 
has sent for him several times he has always returned an 
excuse and stayed away. His best excuse was that he 
could not get through Santa Cruz, but now that the 
Spanish there have surrendered, that excuse has lost its 
force, and he probably will come in. 

For Secretary of the Interior Aguinaldo appointed 
Leandro Ibarra, a lawyer who is considered generally an 
honest man. 

The Secretary of "War is Baldomero Aguinaldo, first 
cousin of the insurgent leader. He was once a school- 
master and is always a conceited ass. 

Mariano Trias, the Secretary of the Treasury, is one of 
those wooden-headed men of whom the best that his 
friends can say is that he is *^an honest fellow who means 
well." Among the people he probably stands next to 
Aguinaldo himself in popularity. He was Vice-President 
of the insurgent Government in the last rebellion. 

Among the commanders. Generals and subordinate 
officials Aguinaldo has some able, honest men and some 
scoundrels. Brigadier-General Pio del Pilar, who is in 
command of one of the zones adjacent to the city of 
Manila, is regarded as one of the biggest of the scoun- 
drels. He is instigating or winking at a series of crimes 
in the outskirts of the city which will bring him into the 
hands of the Americans before very long, and there he 
will get short shrift. Aguinaldo knows him and a shrewd 
guesser would say that the insurgent leader would not 
be sorry if Pio del Pilar ended his existence before a file 
of American rifles. 

Sandico is just the opposite of Del Pilar. He is one 
of the cleverest of the Filipino leaders, and is an upright, 
honourable man, with a clear understanding of the limita- 
tions of his people and of the circumstances and difficulties 
which surround their struggle for liberty. 

One of the cleverest men associated with Aguinaldo is 
his secretary and interpreter, Escamilla. He is an ac- 
complished linguist, speaks Spanish fluently, English 
very well, and Latin and French, besides the native 
dialects. He is also a musician, and gave piano lessons 
in Hong Kong before the rebellion began. 

Aguinaldo's navy of two or three steamers, including 



DREAMS OF THE FILIPINO CHIEF 333 

the Filipinas, whose crew murdered their Spanish officers, 
is commanded by Estefan de la Eama, who carries the 
title of Commandante de Marina. He is educated, rich 
and has a reputation for honesty and ability. 

Among his councillors Aguinaldo has some good men. 

It is reported here that Don Felipe Agoncillo is to be one 
of Aguinaldo's emissaries before the Paris Commission, 
that is, if Aguinaldo's men get a hearing. Agoncillo has 
been the insurgent agent in Hong Kong. He is a lawyer 
and clever. 

Among his generals Aguinaldo has most any kind of a 
man you want. The ranking officer is Eiego de Dios, 
who is a Lieutenant-General. He is the Military Gov- 
ernor of Cavite, and would be of more service, perhaps, 
if he were better educated, which is his misfortune 
rather than his fault. At least he is reputed to be 
honest. Major-General Eicati, who has command of the 
zone south of Manila, is another ^' means well.''' Pante- 
leon Garcia, who is in command of the operations to the 
north of the city, is not very well educated, but is honest. 

Besides these there are a lot of other Generals. Koriel, 
a bullet-headed, good-humoured young man, of whom I 
have written at length before, likes a cockfight and a good 
square meal and has both. Also he has won the reputa- 
tion of being a good soldier. Estrella, who commands 
the forces in Cavite, has a reputation for honesty if not 
for ability, which is about all that can be said of Mas- 
cardo. Young Gregorio del Pilar has a good education 
and is honest, but he has a lot to learn about the art and 
science of war. 

Of the lesser lights none perhaps has come more fre- 
quently into contact with the Americans than Colonel 
Montenegro, who was once a clerk in a hotel in Manila, 
where he learned his *^ honesty" and also picked up 
English. Most of Aguinaldo's Adjutants are young and 
clever fellows, who belong to the best Filipino families. 
They are usually active, alert and well educated. Par- 
ticularly is this true of Arevela and Guzman, both of 
whom are on Noriel's staff and had considerable to do 
with the Americans when they were in Camp Dewey, 
near Paranaque, where Xoriel has his headquarters. 
Arevela got his education largely from an American and 
is very friendly to us, as is Xoriel. 



334 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

CHAPTER XLIX 

A FILIPIN^O NABOTH 

Manila, Sept. 10. — The occupation of Manila on August 
13 was not so complete or so effective as it might have been 
if the elaborate and well-digested plans of the movement 
had been fully carried out. This has been suggested, I 
am sure, in the descriptions of the event which will have 
been published long before this letter reaches you. But 
the situation here is now so critical that whatever may be 
the outcome of the present troubles a frank statement of 
the causes which led up to them will be, perhaps, of 
some interest even long after quiet has been restored to 
this town and province. The memorandum of verbal in- 
structions given the general officers at Camp Dewey just 
before the assault on the Spanish works south of Manila 
contains certain instructions which show the intentions of 
the commanding General to fulfil the implied promise to 
the Spaniards that the insurgents would not be permitted 
to advance into the suburbs of the town. General Mac- 
Arthur, who commanded the First Brigade and held the 
right of the line, was directed, in case he was able to pass 
the enemy's works, to leave a force in the trenches in- 
structed to prevent any armed bodies other than American 
troops from crossing the trenches in the direction of Ma- 
nila. He was further ordered to hold certain bridges in 
the suburbs over which the insurgents would have to pass 
if they succeeded in escaping the vigilance of the troops left 
to guard the Spanish works. General Greene's brigade 
was on the left of the line from the seashore to an im- 
passable swamp on the east side of which was the First 
Brigade. The instructions given to General Greene con- 
cerning the occupation of the Spanish trenches were the 
same as those received by General MacArthur, and he was 
further ordered to advance through Malate and Ermita, the 
suburbs south of the walled town, and to cross the Pasig 
and occupy the suburbs on the north side of the river, leav- 
ing MacArthur to take possession of the southern suburbs 
and to relieve the guard in the trenches by detachments 
of his own troops. The advance which was to follow the 
bombardment by the fleet and by the field guns on the 
trenches was carried out by the Second Brigade as planned, 



A FILIPINO NABOTH 335 

without any serious losses, but the First Brigade met with 
stubborn resistance at the strongest point of the Spanish 
works, blockhouses 13 and 14, and did not succeed in 
driving out the enemy until long after the Second Brigade 
had pushed on through Malate and Ermita and had ceased 
aggressive operations on account of the display of a white 
flag on the walls of the old town. MacArthur not being 
able to move up so as to keep in touch with Greene, an 
opening was left in some way so a large force of insurgents 
pushed through unchecked, and, with an effrontery that was 
scarcely to be expected even of the natives, they marched 
into Malate and established a large post in a building on 
the seashore, fairly cutting in two the First Brigade. 

One can scarcely understand how these armed bands 
were to be kept out as the orders directed, unless force 
could be used, and yet the injunctions were not to use 
force or, at least to use force only as the last resort. The 
occupation of positions within our own lines would seem 
to be an act which might call for the use of a leaden 
argument, but there was not, so far as I have been able 
to learn, so much as a protest against this action. In 
other parts of the circle of Spanish defences their game 
was played much easier. That portion of their forces on 
the south which did not come into Manila was moved 
around to attack the Spaniards on the east, and shortly 
after the preliminary articles of capitulation were signed 
General Merritt began to receive despatches from various 
Spanish commanders, saying they could not hold out 
against the insurgents much longer unless they had 
reinforcements. I must reiterate here that the Spaniards, 
who have a great fear of the insurgents on account of 
their savage mania for revenge and their love of 
plunder, believed that the Americans were bound to keep 
the rebels out of the town that is, outside the line of 
works. This, it will be remembered, was the original 
intention and for all that is known to the contrary, was a 
stipulation tacitly granted to the Spaniards, if not ac- 
tually guaranteed them. In reply to the calls for 
reinforcements, General Merritt sent word to the Span- 
iards at the outworks on the east and north to retire and 
come into the walled town to lay down their arms, and he, at 
the same time, declined to send out any American troops to 
take their places. Thus there were many roads left open 



336 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

to the insurgents to move up into the suburbs without 
let or hindrance. This they proceeded to do with great 
alacrity, and in a few hours they were swarming around 
the town in all directions and pushed up to the very out- 
post on the streets of the northern suburbs and down to 
within a few hundred yards of the Governor-General's 
palace at Malacanan, where General Merritt took up his 
oflScial residence. 

Then, having gained a great step toward sharing the 
occupation of the town and holding the water-works 
and all the Spanish lines except the fort on the beach 
which the fleet bombarded, to give weight to his claims, 
Aguinaldo made the ten demands described in a pre- 
vious letter. The most extraordinary demands were 
that the Governor- General's palace at Malacanan and the 
Archbishops' palaces in the southern suburbs should be 
turned over to the use of Aguinaldo and his officers, and 
further, that an equitable share of the booty captured in 
Manila should be handed over to him. These items, 
innocently persisted upon in every communication of the 
many which the young dictator wrote General Merritt, 
indicate better than columns of explanations and descrip- 
tions of personal character the turn of mind of this bump- 
tious and vain individual who has now gone so far as to en- 
courage openly the belief among his troops that he is a 
ruler by divine right, that he has a charmed life, that at 
times his glory shines with too brilliant a light to be 
looked upon by mortal eyes. Tlie superstitious natives 
carry in their mouths when they go into action slips of 
parchment with their God-like leader's name written on 
them, assured that this charm will preserve their lives. 

For several days after the occupation of the town there 
was no water to be had except rain water, which was 
caught in the cisterns and in other receptacles. Fortu- 
nately it rained frequently at this time, else there would 
have been a water famine. General Merritt took no steps 
to get possession of the pumping station, which is about 
five miles from the town, nor did he even go so far as to 
occupy the filtering reservoirs, which are within the old 
Spanish lines. But instead of seizing these important 
points he wrote Aguinaldo asking him to start the pumps. 
In reply he was assured that orders would be given to 
that effect, but three days passed and nothing was done. 



A FILIPINO NABOTH 337 

Finally, on the morning of the fourth day, the weather 
becoming settled and the rainwater getting low, two 
companies of the Colorado regiment were sent out under 
command of an engineer officer to occupy the pumping 
station and the reservoir. Arrived within half a mile or 
so of the latter, they were met by a force of insurgents 
who had advanced during the negotiations about the 
water-works much nearer our lines, and they were told 
that Aguinaldo had ordered them to stop any foreigners 
from going up to the pumping station. General Merritt, 
in reply to a request for positive directions for action in case 
the insurgents should resist the proposed occupation, had 
given only indefinite instructions which might be inter- 
preted by a man of military instinct as encouragement to 
carry out orders at any cost. 

Therefore the officer commanding the small detach- 
ment was preparing to force his way past the insurgents 
when an orderly galloped up bearing an order from head- 
quarters to retire if the insurgents opposed the advance. 
So the little force, full of fight and feeling keenly the 
humiliation of the position marched back again, and the 
insurgents still hold the water-works and at their own 
sweet will permit the pumps to be run and the necessary 
material and workmen to be moved through their lines. 
Encouraged by the inertia of the Americans, Aguinaldo 
lost no time in crowding forward on all sides until he 
occupied fourteen blockhouses, every part of the Spanish 
trenches except a few yards adjoining the Fort San 
Antonio de Abad on the beach, the suburbs of Santa Ana 
and Paco and a large area in the heart of Malate which 
completes their circle of occupation from the waterfront 
on the south to the bay on the north of the town, thus 
completely investing the American lines and holding 
strongly intrenched positions around them, except in the 
one place above spoken of. An indication of the situa- 
tion, which it must be confessed, is the most extraordi- 
nary and unmilitary position imaginable, is best given by 
showing how confused is the occupation in the immediate 
vicinity of the official residences. If an officer of General 
Merritt's staff wished to drive to the Manila Club in 
Malate he had to pass through a mile or more of insur- 
gent territory where they were often actively engaged in 
collecting tolls from the peasants and searching every one 

22 



338 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

who passed, except foreigners of course. After passing 
this zone, the road was held by our troops. If he wrote a 
cable despatch at the club and wished to send it off he had 
to pass out of our lines, through the insurgent zone and 
almost up to our lines again, to find the cable office. The 
insurgents did not interfere with his trip, but they were 
very strict about passing a Spaniard, and for a long time 
would let no supplies be carried to the cable station. 
Further, they kidnapped several Spaniards on the way to 
the cable office, a proceeding which has so terrorised the 
others that they seldom venture, even at this late date, 
to go out there, except in the company of an Englishman 
or an American. 

This was exactly the state of affairs when General Mer- 
ritt left. He had temporised with Aguinaldo, and had so 
far recognised him as a belligerent that he had consented 
to grant him certain concessions, and without saying as 
much, he had apparently led him to believe that he could 
get all he persistently claimed. Aguinaldo's letters be- 
came less and less courteous, and the last one, written on 
August 27, was absolutely unprecedented in its dictatorial 
statements. General Merritt did not reply to this, but 
left it to his successor to deal with the situation as his 
judgment directed. The departure of Generals Merritt, 
Babcock and Greene on the 30th, with several staff officers 
left various offices in the military government without 
incumbents, and there was a general turn-over in the 
different departments. General Otis found, therefore,that 
he had not only to begin work all over again, but had to 
struggle with the confusion which naturally resulted from 
the brief occupancy of office by those who suddenly went 
away. Although he is an extraordinarily active man and 
a tireless worker General Otis was absolutely unable to 
take up the insurgent question until the last week, and 
then he settled it beyond the possibility of any further 
controversy of words. In terse and direct language he 
replied to Aguinaldo's claims, proved beyond argument 
that they had no equitable foundation, and then gave him 
an authoritative notice to withdraw his armed forces 
from the suburbs of Manila before the 15th or suffer the 
consequences. The notice was given in very nearly these 
words : ^^ It only remains for me, therefore, to notify you 
that my instructions compel me to demand that your 



A FILIPINO NABOTH 339 

armed forces evacuate the entire city of Manila and its 
suburbs, and that I shall be obliged to take action to that 
end within a very short time if you refuse to comply with 
my Government's demands, and I hereby serve notice 
upon you that unless you remove your troops from the 
city of Manila and the line of its suburbs before the 15th 
of September, I shall take forcible action, and my Gov- 
ernment will hold you responsible for any unfortunate 
consequences which may ensue." 

It is only proper to add that Admiral Dewey fully 
agreed with the terms of this ultimatum, and that word 
was sent Aguinaldo to this effect. 

There have been, as might be expected, continual 
irritating disturbances between the insurgents and our 
troops. In a brawl at Cavite, a few days ago, one of our 
men was killed an^ another was dangerously wounded. 
Marauding insurgents, bearing passes from General Pilar, 
who commands the district to the east of Manila, have on 
one or two occasions been shot by our men because they 
refused to halt when they were running away to avoid 
arrest. But no serious conflicts have yet taken place, a 
fact which bears testimony to the remarkable patience 
and self-control of our troops, who are often subjected to 
considerable humiliation at the hands of the insurgent 
officers. Aguinaldo has moved his headquarters up to 
Malolos, about twenty miles north of the toAwi, and on 
the day of his arrival there the ultimatum was handed 
him. His conceit was apparently not dampened by the 
prospect suggested in General Otis's letter, and he cele- 
brated quite a triumph at Malolos with music and a ban- 
quet and barbaric pageantry. The chief reason for mov- 
ing his headquarters up to the north is probably because 
he finds it difficult to control the different factions from a 
distance. Further, he has the railway line, occupies ex- 
cellent strategic positions, and is an easy distance of the 
insurgent stronghold at "V^iacnabato, where the Spaniards 
sued for peace last December and bought Aguinaldo off 
with the promise of reforms, accompanied by a douceur 
of cash. 

The Indian nature is not strong enough to endure suc- 
cess, and the temporary position of importance to which 
the insurgents have been raised by the help of our fleet 
and army has been too much for them, and they are quite 



340 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

oS. their balance now. No one can tell how serious the 
disaffection of their leaders may be, or how widespread is 
the jealousy and distrust of Aguinaldo. Scarcely any 
one has now a good word to say for him, although he 
still keeps his organisation together. He is pursuing the 
fight with the Spaniards with unflagging activity, and 
scarcely a day passes that his forces do not capture men 
and arms at some remote Spanish post. The whole of the 
island of Luzon, except Manila and Cavite, is now in his 
possession, and he has men and steamers enough to carry 
the campaign into Panay and capture Iloilo, which he will 
probably do soon unless diverted from his purpose by the 
situation at Manila. It is a curious fact that although 
he professes to desire to be recognised as an ally of the 
Americans and dilates on his friendly sentiments in al- 
most every one of his effusive conversations, he did not 
call upon General Merritt, nor has he yet presented him- 
self to General Otis. Before General Merritt's arrival he 
was approachable and communicative, but since the troops 
landed he has been a frequent sufferer from convenient 
illness and has acquired the habit of taking a great deal 
of sleep, in which he must not be disturbed. 



CHAPTER L 

FOKESHADOWING THE EKD 

Mai^ila, Sept. 12. — A very narrow line for the last few 
days has seemed to separate us from war with the insur- 
gents. Many of us have warm personal friends among 
them. !N"early all of our friends recognise the grave pos- 
sibilities of the situation. They have done all within their 
power to avert a clash. Now it seems probable that for 
the present, at least, they will succeed, but ultimately a 
clash is almost inevitable. 

When war is impersonal and you do not know, perhaps 
never have seen your enemy, when you have heard 
and believe all sorts of stories of his faithlessness, 
brutality and dishonour, then the pomp and glamour of it 
affect you. You can idealise it away from the sordidness, 
from the misery, the suffering and the hardship and you 
can go out with light heart and stout determination, 
strong in the fixed conviction of the righteousness of your 



FORESHADOWING THE END 34I 

cause. But when you fight men you know and esteem, 
men who are your friends, who represent a people whom 
you know to possess many lovable traits of character and 
who you know desire nothing so much as to be on terms 
of peaceful friendship with you, it gives you a sinking of 
the heart and it fills you with rage at the unskilful or 
careless management which has produced out of a situation 
possible of such satisfactory development only a tangle the 
sole solution of which is the arbitrament of armed force. 

I believe that conflict between the Americans and in- 
surgents in the Philippines is absolutely needless and 
criminal. I believe that a personal meeting between the 
leaders of both sides, a full, frank discussion of the ques- 
tions at issue, and a clear understanding of all sides of 
the situation, such as would result from such a discussion, 
would remove the acute danger, and settle the trouble 
satisfactorily. But that possibility is only a dream. 
Things have gone too far. The Americans have taken a 
position and made a stand. They cannot recede, and the 
man who cannot understand how he is in the wrong must 
take the punishment for believing himself right. 

It was in the beginning that the Americans were wrong, 
and there their fault lay principally in a lack of candour, 
that is, to a lack of complete candour on the part of the 
army officers. The beginning of it all goes clear back to 
Hong Kong, where the original negotiations were held 
with Aguinaldo in May. Williams and Wildman, the 
Consuls at Manila and Hong Kong, did the talking for 
the Americans. Williams says that it was understood 
distinctly that Aguinaldo was to come down here and be 
permitted to land at Cavite and conduct his operations 
practically under the sheltering wing of Admiral Dewey, 
only on condition that he should be subject at all times to 
American control. Aguinaldo has not acted in conformity 
to this condition and the Americans probably are respon- 
sible for letting him get out of bounds. The first slip on 
the American side, which gave Aguinaldo the opening 
through which to escape that condition, after it had be- 
come irksome, was made on July 5, when this speech was 
made to Aguinaldo by G-eneral Anderson : 

'* The United States have been a great nation for 122 
years and have neither had nor desired a colony. I leave 
you to draw your own inference.^' 



342 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

For Aguinaldo that was a distinct recession from the 
original condition. His own inference, of course, would 
be the one that best suited his desires and best fitted his 
situation. Undoubtedly that inference was that the 
United States had interfered in the Philippines on behalf of 
the rebels, and meant in the end that they should profit 
by the American victories. Moreover, the statement of 
General Anderson was equivocal and one which he had no 
right to make. Discussion of the intentions of his Govern- 
ment was beyond the limits of his authority. He was 
here simply as a soldier to carry out specific instructions, 
beyond which he had no right to go. Those instructions 
contemplated neither action against Manila on his part 
nor negotiations of such character with Aguinaldo. But 
if he had been entirely within his instructions in thus 
talking to the insurgent chief, it was unfortunate that he 
should not have been candid enough to say frankly that 
not even in America was it known at that time what the 
United States would do ultimately with the Philippines. 
He knew that there was a tremendous and growing senti- 
ment in favour of holding them, and that there was lively 
and powerful opposition to that policy. It would have 
been far better to say so frankly and openly than to make 
a speech from which Aguinaldo could justly take the im- 
pression that the operations here would be for his benefit. 

For that matter, it would have been far better for all 
concerned if long ago some one here had been authorised 
officially to explain the American position of uncertainty 
to Aguinaldo. Consul Williams did go to Aguinaldo and 
tell him exactly and plainly the status of the question in 
the United States. But he was compelled to go unofii- 
cially and simply as a friend of the insurgent chief, and 
Aguinaldo chose to take his warning and advice as the 
opinion of one man far from the scene of the controversy, 
imperfectly informed of the real situation and acting for 
himself only, without the authority of his government. 
AVe know that this was a mistake on Aguinaldo's part, 
but there can be no question that he was within his rights 
in so taking Mr. AVilliams's talk, and he cannot be con- 
demned for it. 

Soon after that unlucky speech of Anderson the fric- 
tion began. In the correspondence which went on be- 
tween Anderson and Aguinaldo, the young insurgent 



FORESHADOWING THE END 343 

leader took clever advantage of every opening the Amer- 
ican General gave him. He succeeded in establishing 
himself on the plane of negotiating with an equal, and 
entirely broke away from the irksome bonds of the condi- 
tion on which he was brought down from Hong Kong in 
an American ship, that his actions always should be sub- 
ject to the control of the Americans. Also he contrived 
to make it seem that the ilmericans were forcing him to 
appear in a false light ; that is, as if he were doing under 
their compulsion things in the way of rendering them 
assistance which he was in reality willing and glad to do. 
This may have helped him with his own people, but it 
gave rise to or increased American suspicions of his 
actions and motives, and there certainly arose from it the 
feeling of resentment and indignation among the Amer- 
ican soldiers Avhich has reached such an intensity now 
that a great majority of the men are eager for a fight 
with the insurgents. 

The contact of the men in Camp Dewey with the Fili- 
pinos about them did not help matters. The Americans 
did not understand the natives' language, customs or 
beliefs. They called the natives ^' niggers" and treated 
them as such. They were high-handed, abrupt and often 
unjust. Naturally this produced resentment on the part 
of the natives and increased the misunderstanding. The 
natives overcharged the soldiers for their work and wares 
and this produced resentment among the Americans. 
But all that would have been purely temporary and soon 
effaced if other matters had not led to the present acute 
stage of the affair. As it is, it has produced a false spirit 
among our men, and even among some of our officers, which 
will render more difficult a settlement after a conflict. 

General Greene came, blunt, aggressive, forceful, with 
no particular admiration for the natives or consideration 
of their views or feelings. His style of diplomacy is mod- 
elled on the sledge-hammer principle, and that is a prin- 
ciple which the Pilipino does not understand. If you 
attempt to drive the Filipino he usually sits down and 
refuses to budge. He has more patience than a mountain 
and will wear you out every time. But he can be led 
like a child. 

In this hit-and-miss fashion, without clear understand- 
ing on our part of the people with whom we were dealing. 



344 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

and apparently without very much concern for the pos- 
sible results, matters moved along until General Merritt 
came. General Merritt probably had less genuine interest 
in affairs down here than any other officer of the entire 
expedition. His heart was in America and his desire was 
to take the rest of himself there after it. Aguinaldo did 
not call on him. General Merritt was piqued, and some- 
how the impression spread from the Newport that he had 
refused to see Aguinaldo or have any communication 
with him. Matters went from bad to worse until the 
surrender of the city was arranged, and then began the 
last stage of the difficulty. 

Meantime our officers had been going about the city 
reconnoitring and making maps of the Spanish positions 
and of the country about the city. Everywhere the in- 
surgents had been most friendly to them and had ren-' 
dered them most valuable assistance. They had entertained 
our officers with simple, genuine hospitality, which never 
failed to produce the best it could supply, and they had 
hesitated at no trouble or labour or expenditure of time 
in doing what the Americans wanted. The officers who 
made these expeditions and met these people in their 
homes and learned to know them for themselves are now 
their friends. They are the ones who best understand 
the situation, and they are the ones who are most regret- 
ful that a conflict is among the possibilities. 

On the day before the surrender of Manila, after Gen- 
eral Merritt had issued the order arranging the disposi- 
tion of his troops for the attack on the city, and relegat- 
ing Anderson, the ranking officer after himself, to the 
command of the reserve, he ordered Anderson to prevent 
the entrance of the insurgents into the city. Previous to 
this Aguinaldo had expressed the desire to march his 
troops into the city. He wanted a sort of Roman triumph. 
This request had been conveyed to General Merritt and 
ignored. Xow it was answered by the order to Anderson. 
Anderson at once telegraphed to Aguinaldo at Bakor that 
the insurgents must not advance on the next day, and 
that it would be impossible for the Americans to permit 
them to enter the city. 

That night Aguinaldo replied with a laconic message 
consisting of only two words, ^' Too late.'^ He had made 
his arrangements for participating in the attack and had 



FORESHADOWING THE END 345 

issued his orders. He would not rescind them at that 
late date. The insurgents, from his point of view at 
least, had been co-operating with the Americans in the 
operations against Manila. They had acted as our allies, 
whether they were recognised as such or not. They had 
completely outgrown the terms of the original compact 
in Hong Kong. They had chased the Spaniards from 
Cavite Viejo to Manila, had invested the city completely, 
had shut off supplies from the country and now demanded 
a share in the reward. 

Headers of these letters know what happened on the 
day of the fall of Manila. They will remember how the 
insurgents hurried along, sometimes behind our men, 
sometimes beside them, by footpaths and trails that par- 
ralleled the main roads taken by the Americans, and in a 
few cases ahead of Uncle Sam's soldiers. In , pite of our 
efforts several hundred of them got into the suburbs. 
They took possession of private houses and established 
guards in front. They looted a few houses, smashing 
open the safe of a Spanish official who lived in Ermita 
and taking $7,000 out of it. They occupied several public 
buildings, convents and barracks and got several good 
positions. In the evening a few hundreds of them were 
rounded up by our men. Three companies were dis- 
armed. Some were forced back out of the city and about 
a thousand were surrounded and held in Malate, after- 
ward being sent back outside our lines. 

Next morning there was trouble. General Merritt sent 
word to get the insurgents out of the city at once. Gen- 
eral Anderson asked whether he was authorised to use 
force or not. The staff officer who brought the message 
from General Merritt did not know, and so without speci- 
fic instructions to go at them with his troops, Anderson 
telegraphed Aguinaldo to withdraw his men at once. 
Then the clever young insurgent chief got in his best 
stroke in the whole game. lie replied that he had sent 
commissioners to General Anderson to discuss the matter 
with him and lay some propositions before him, and Ander- 
son fell into the trap. He received the commissioners 
and heard their propositions. Then the matter became 
one of discussion and diplomacy and not one of action. 
Aguinaldo had got his hold and for the time being, at 
least, would keep it. The young man at Bakor was ap- 



346 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

parently familiar with the story of ]Si aboth. The proposi- 
tions which Aguinaldo's commissioners made were ten 
in number, and some of them were most astounding. 
They provided : 

1. That the insurgents would retire to a line running from 
Malate to Paco, thence down the Paco Creek to the Pasig, up the 
Pasig to the bridge of Aviles, along the Calle a Aviles to Santa 
Mesa, thence through Sampaloe, San Lazaro and Tondo, to the 
beach at the north. This would have given them Malate and 
Paco and important positions on the east and north of the city. 

2. That the Filipinos should retain certain convents in Malate, 
Paco and the northern suburbs, and should have the Palace of 
the Captain-General in Malacanan. 

3. That the Filipinos should have the free navigation of the 
Pasig for their vessels and the " protection of the Patria." No- 
body knows what the Patria is, or has been able to find out, but 
subsequent negotiations showed that it had something to do with 
our protection of their ships in all waters under our control. 

4. That the Filipinos share in the booty of war. 

5. That the civil offices be filled entirely by North Americans. 
If General Merritt desired to appoint Filipinos to any such places, 
Aguinaldo suggested through the commissioners that he would 
be glad to consult General Merritt about such appointments and 
to recommend men for them whom he knew to be fit for the 
places. 

6. That the Filipinos should retain control of the reservoir and 
pumping station of the water-works. 

7. That the Filipino officers should be permitted to enter the 
city at all times wearing their side arms. 

8. That the arms taken from the Filipinos on the night of 
August 13 should be returned. 

9. That the American troops should retire within the lines pro- 
posed by Aguinaldo, and should not pass beyond those lines with 
arms. 

10. That all regulations should be in writing, and to be bind- 
ing should be confirmed by the Commanders-in-Chief of the two 
forces. 

The last nine of these demands were the condition 
precedent which the modest young Mr. Aguinaldo, who 
had come down here subject to American control, made to 
the withdrawal of his forces to the line specified in the 
first proposition. To put it mildly General Anderson 
was surprised. He held the notions to which the Ameri- 
cans have clung ever since with considerable pertinacity, 
that the city had been surrendered to our forces and that 
only the Americans were responsible for the protection of 
life and property within its limits. The insurgents had 
not been mentioned in the articles of capitulation, and 



FORESHADOWING THE END 347 

General Anderson did not contemplate the sharing with 
them of the responsibility devolved upon his Government 
by that capitulation. He replied to the commissioners 
that he had a condition precedent to make — just one. It 
was that the insurgent troops should retire at once to the 
line which he would draw before there should be any fur- 
ther negotiations. His line ran from the Bocano de 
Vistas to San Lazaro, Cemeterio de Sampaloe, Block- 
house 5, Blockhouse 6, the Depot des Aguas Patables, 
the Spanish works beyond San Juan del Monte, thence in 
a straight line to San Pedro Macati, thence in a straight 
line to Blockhouse 14, on the Pinda road, thence in a 
straight line to the beach at Maytubig south of the pol- 
vorin at Malate. But the mistake had been made in 
listening at all to the insurgent proposals. Anderson's 
conditions of withdrawal to the line he specified should 
have been precedent to the original reception of the pro- 
posals, and not to further discussion of them. The 
commissioners promptly showed this by appealing to 
Caesar. Anderson felt that he was compelled to admit 
the appeal, and to Ca3sar they went. American General 
and insurgent commissioners together. 

General Merritt was busy, but this was rather a matter 
of importance. He heard the insurgent propositions, and 
then a peculiar thing happened. Anderson had been told 
that he was to take sole charge of the negotiations with 
Aguinaldo. Now Merritt asked the commissioners for 
time in which to consider the propositions they had made 
and promised an answer later, but with reasonable dis- 
patch. He left Anderson waiting at headquarters and 
went out to consult Admiral Dewey. In the meantime the 
insurgents not only did not withdraw, but they followed 
the example of IS'aboth and strengthened themselves where 
they were. Merritt came back from his consultation 
with Dewey and told Anderson to go to Cavite and stay 
there in charge of the detached command to which his 
rank entitled him. Anderson has been there ever since, 
pondering mightily. He knows that something dropped, 
but what it was and where it fell he has not yet deter- 
mined. 

Then Merritt set himself to the task of replying to 
the insurgent proposals. Having taken the palace at 
Malacaflan for his own use, he declined to move out for 



348 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

Aguinaldo's comfort. The convents having been surren- 
dered to the Americans with the rest of the city and the 
Americans being bound by the terms of the capitulation 
to protect private property, he demanded that the insur- 
gents get out of them and withdraw from the jurisdictional 
limits of the city. The Americans being solely responsi- 
ble for the protection of life and property, could not 
agree to the joint occupation of the city proposed by 
Aguinaldo. '^ Protection of the Patria " General Merritt 
did not understand, but all questions as to navigation 
he referred to Admiral Dewey. Booty of war not being 
recognised by the Americans, they could not share it 
with the Filipinos. He was grateful to Aguinaldo for his 
proffer of assistance in filling the civil offices with suitable 
men and would remember it. The Filipinos having cap- 
tured the water- works without American assistance, it was 
proper that they should retain control of them, but it was 
necessary for the welfare and comfort of the Americans 
that the water should be turned on at once, and he asked 
that this be done. Permission having been given Spanish 
officers by the terms of capitulation to wear their side 
arms, it was extended also to the Filipino officers, 
but it was suggested that in order to promote peace and 
good order they leave their revolvers at home. The arms 
captured from the Filipinos would be returned when the 
troops withdrew from the city. That <7as the only condi- 
tion precedent Merritt made. He ignored the tenth pro- 
posal formally, but by writing his own reply tacitly agreed 
to it. 

This communication from General Merritt to Aguinaldo 
was delayed two or three days, and in the meantime the 
insurgents held on in the city and bettered their position. 
More men managed to get in with arms in spite of the 
precautions taken by the Americans, and the situation 
from our point of view grew worse rather than better. 
In response to Merritt's letter Aguinaldo sent three prop- 
ositions, his former long list having been cut down by 
Merritt's concessions. These three propositions were a 
demand for the original line proposed by his Commission- 
ers, the protection of his vessels by the vessels of our navy 
in waters controlled by the Americans and the assurance 
from Merritt that in case the Americans should return 
the city to Spain as the result of the work of the Paris 



FORESHADOWING THE END 349 

Commission, the insurgents would be left in possession of 
all they now hold. 

General Merritt left for Paris without answering this let- 
ter, and General Otis picked up his inheritance of trouble. 
He had to go over the whole correspondence from the 
beginning and to pick up all the threads and ends of the 
situation as best he could. He sent word at once to Agui- 
naldo that it would take some time for him to familiarise 
himself sufficiently with the matter to answer the last 
letter intelligently. Aguinaldo didn't care, of course. 
It gave him more time to occupy the places he held in 
the city without conflict, and the longer he held on that 
way the better his position grew. There were constant 
accessions to his strength in the city, his principal hold- 
ings being in Tondo, Paco, Sampaloe, Ermita and Malate. 
Every one of the five principal roads leading from the 
city is occupied by his forces at some point or other, and 
there are several barracks, convents and schools in which 
his men are quartered and over which his flag flies undis- 
turbed. All told, he has between 3,000 and 4,000 men 
in the limits of the territory surrendered by Jaudenes to 
Merritt. 

General Otis made as careful and exhaustive a study of 
the whole situation as a man could who had not been a 
participant in the earlier proceedings. The dominant 
fact, of course, is the legal impossibility of the Americans 
permitting the existing situation to continue. We can- 
not divide the responsibility and we cannot share occupa- 
tion with a people for whom we cannot undertake to be 
responsible. We are bound absolutely by the terms of the 
capitulation, and whether that was wise or not has nothing 
to do now with our actions. If it was a mistake, we must 
abide by the consequences. Not the less must we insist 
upon our rights under it, and obtain them by force if 
necessary. All this General Otis wrote to Aguinaldo in a 
long letter, which was a clear concise review of the whole 
situation, and made a careful summing up of the opera- 
tions of the Americans and the insurgents against Manila. 

General Otis ascribed full praise and credit to the insur- 
gents for their work, but he added that we could not for- 
get the help the Americans had given Aguinaldo, or how 
impossible it would have been for him to achieve anything 
like the measure of success that had been his had it not 



350 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

been for the American fleet, which not only destroyed the 
Spanish war-ships, which could always have prevented 
Aguinaldo from capturing Manila, but had prevented the 
sending of reinforcements of men and ships to the be- 
leaguered city. He added that when provoked to conflict 
the Americans counted neither the cost nor the obstacles, 
and served notice on Aguinaldo to remove his forces from 
the jurisdictional limits of Manila by September 15 on 
penalty of having them forcibly removed by the Americans. 
The substance of this letter, with its outline of the pro- 
posed course of G-eneral Otis, was telegraphed to Washing- 
ton and approved by the Government. Xow, as far as the 
Americans are concerned, it is a case with Aguinaldo of 
get out or fight. Which will he do ? 

The letter of General Otis was delivered to Aguinaldo 
at Malalos on the day on which the insurgent chief trans- 
ferred his head quarters there from Bakor. It was a great 
day for Aguinaldo. He was king among his people. They 
gathered in crowds to welcome him and pay him homage. 
They called him the George Washington of the Filipinos. 
They spread him a great feast and made him speeches, 
and celebrated with music and song. Bands played and 
banners decorated the city. I was waiting for an inter- 
view with Aguinaldo, and I saw in the crowd the army 
officer who had in his pocket the letter from General Otis. 
It was more than a skeleton at the feast. The skeleton 
had put on a uniform of United States Army blue and 
was walking about mingling with the revellers. And none 
of them knew what a sword hung over the head of the 
Filipino republic they were toasting and cheering so joy- 
fully and trustfully. Aguinaldo received the letter and 
read it carefully. He knew all it meant to him and un- 
derstood what a terrible danger stood in the way of his 
most dear ambition. Yet he came back among his glad 
people and moved about talking to them, with a smile on 
his impassive face, and that in his bearing which was a 
perfect mask for whatever care oppressed his heart. 

He had found time after reading the letter to give me 
a short interview. I asked him to make some statement 
to the American people of his own hope for his own people, 
of their desires and of the object for which they are 
striving. He said : 

" When the rebellion began the sole idea of the Fill- 



FORESHADOWING THE END 35 1 

pinos was the attainment of their independence, but 
since the Americans have been forced by their war with 
Spain to interfere in the Philippines, the Filipinos hope 
to gain some reward from the Americans in return for 
their arduous work and their sacrifice of life, of blood 
and of treasure in the line of recognition of their liberty. 

It was said after careful deliberation, and it was trans- 
lated carefully. It had been understood for some time 
that Aguinaldo had receded from his ambition of absolute 
independence for the Philippines, but this was the first 
public acknowledgment of his change of view. 

Later in the afternoon I had a long talk with two of 
Aguinaldo's most influential councillors. We discussed 
fully and frankly the terms of General Otis's letter and 
what it meant for the Filipinos and the Americans. 
There was apparently complete candour on both sides and 
no beating about the bush. It began with a request that 
they tell me frankly why the Filipinos declined to accede to 
the demand of the Americans and withdraw from the city. 

"If we had any assurance," they replied, "that the 
Americans would not return the islands to Spain, we 
would do it gladly." 

"' That is a Spanish lie, invented solely in the hope of 
making trouble between the insurgents and the Americans. 
Don't you know that the Americans will not give these 
islands back to Spain ; that is that they will >»ot restore 
Spanish power here ? " 

" We know the Spanish tell the story, but we have no as- 
surance from America that that will not occur," they said. 

"It is impossible for the Americans to give such an 
assurance without dishonour. It is impossible for the 
American Government to make such an assurance while 
it is treating with Spain. By the terms of the capitula- 
tion Manila was surrendered to the Americans, who are 
obligated to safeguard life and property. Under that 
obligation the Americans cannot share the responsibility, 
and they cannot permit the occupation of the city by them- 
selves and an armed force not their allies." 

" But," said the councillors, " if there could be a rec- 
ognition of our belligerency it would be all right." 

'* Don't you understand that such a recognition is im- 
possible while the United States are treating for peace 
with Spain ? How can we grant belligerent rights to her 



352 OUR CONQUESTS IN THE PACIFIC 

enemy when we are negotiating with her on such a basis 
without dishonour ? " 

*^ But our position in the city," they said, **is not 
against the Americans. It is against the Spanish alone. 
If we should retire and then the Americans should go 
away leaving us in a worse position than we are now our 
people would cut off our heads." 

*' General Otis has been ordered by his Government to 
insist that the insurgents withdraw from the city. If they 
do not he must force them out. Do you want a 
conflict ? " 

" We should be very sorry to have any trouble, but we 
must hold our position," said the councillors." 

*^ Do you think that you can hold your position against 
the Americans ? " 

" No. You are very much greater." 

'* Then in heaven's name what can you gain by fighting 
the best friend you have on earth ? From which of all the 
nations on earth can the Filipinos expect the most assis- 
tance if they remain on friendly terms .^ " 

"From America." 

" Then what can you gain by fighting her ? " 

"Nothing at all." said one of the councillors, but the 
other went back to his proposition : 

"If there was any assurance that we should not be left 
worse off when the Americans withdraw it would be all 
right." 

" But you know that assurance cannot be given. 
You insist on holding a position to which you are not en- 
titled, and you force us to fight you to protect our own ob- 
ligations and our honour. What can you gain by that ? " 

" We can only die." This from both councillors. 

"Yes, die ; and so can we, and you lose everything 
and we gain nothing. Don't you see what folly it is ? " 

" We must hold what we have gained," they said. 
" We have made great sacrifices of life and treasure and 
now if we retire our people will cut off our heads. We 
must hold our position, and if the Americans fight we 
can only die. 

Thus around the circle they argued for two hours. 
They cannot see our position and we cannot reach theirs. 
We know that our own honour and faith will not be broken 
with them. It all means that sometime we shall fight. 







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